Earlier this week, McDonald’s Instagram account was compromised to promote a Solana-based memecoin named GRIMACE.

The fraudulent post claimed the token was a McDonald’s experiment, leading to a rapid surge in GRIMACE’s value to a $20 million market cap before plummeting to under $1 million.

The hackers not only manipulated the platform to promote the memecoin but also made bold claims, stating, “sorry mah [explicit] you have just been rug pulled…thank you for the $700,000 in Solana,” indicating a successful rug pull.

Although McDonald’s quickly removed the post, the incident left behind a trail of financial losses for investors who got caught in the hype​.

This situation underscores the vulnerability of even major corporate social media accounts to hacking attempts aimed at fueling crypto scams. GRIMACE, which was initially portrayed as an experiment by McDonald’s, became another cautionary tale for the crypto community. As meme coins continue to attract both legitimate and fraudulent attention, users are advised to remain vigilant and skeptical of sudden opportunities that seem too good to be true​.

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