An X account impersonating Hong Kong’s Chief Govt, John Lee Ka-chiu, launched a faux nationwide cryptocurrency on Solana’s token launchpad Pump.enjoyable. The account promoted the token to its 1000’s of followers, seemingly aiming to capitalize on the current Political memecoin frenzy.
Hong Kong Gov’t Denies Nationwide Cryptocurrency
On Thursday, an X account below the username “JohnLeeKa_Chiu” introduced the “Nationwide Hong Kong Coin” (HKONG). Within the now-deleted publish, the Chief Govt’s impersonator mentioned that the “strategic step” marked a “new period in digital innovation and financial progress for Hong Kong.”
Just a few hours later, the account acknowledged that the token would formally launch at 2:00 pm Hong Kong time, but it surely was postponed to five:00 pm. Forward of the launch, the impersonator interacted with a number of X accounts, replying to US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The account additionally replied to Barstool Sports activities founder Dave Portnoy’s heated trade with American actor Nick Cannon, who not too long ago launched a Solana memecoin. Within the publish, the impersonator thanked Portnoy for allegedly serving to the Hong Kong authorities “with launch of Hong Kong nationwide crypto forex.”
John Lee Ka-chiu impersonator replies to Dave Portnoy. Supply: Blake Allen on X
Some crypto traders mentioned whether or not the Chief Govt had been hacked and if the announcement was a rip-off, because the X account displayed a grey verification mark, which signifies an account represents a authorities or multilateral group.
Nonetheless, John Lee Ka-chiu’s official Fb web page denied the hyperlinks to the X account and defined the federal government was not launching a cryptocurrency. “Members of the general public mustn’t mistakenly imagine the faux data claiming that the Chief Govt has introduced the launch of the Nationwide Hong Kong Coin,” the publish learn.
He clarified that somebody was pretending to be him to defraud unsuspected traders, warning them to “watch out in searching for proof and verifying the authenticity of the data to stop them from being cheated.”
Is The Political Memecoin Social gathering Over?
On X, a member of the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Particular Administrative Area, Johnny Ng, echoed the identical warning:
To be completely clear – the federal government has confirmed that is utterly faux and designed to rip-off folks. Please watch out on the market and don’t fall for this trick!
This incident raised issues about X’s account verification and safety, because it follows a protracted checklist of hacked X accounts used to advertise crypto scams. One consumer identified that the impersonator possible hacked the account of Indian officers and altered the username, identify, and biography to conduct the scheme.
Notably, the account beforehand posted photos of the Prime Minister of India and reposted a number of posts from numerous Indian officers. Furthermore, it deleted all posts associated to the Nationwide Hong Kong cryptocurrency and altered its username to “moftransilvania,” suggesting that the hackers stay in command of the account.
Some customers additionally identified that the rip-off didn’t achieve momentum for the reason that hacker didn’t launch and publish the token’s contract tackle (CA) rapidly, which allowed traders to see the assorted crimson flags. In consequence, the HKONG token solely hit a market capitalization of $200,000 earlier than collapsing.
Others highlighted that the launch of political or Politician-related memecoins has already performed “sufficient harm” to the crypto business, noting the Central African Republic (CAR) “experiment,” and the Argentina-linked Libra token (LIBRA) crash.
As reported by Bitcoinist, the Democratic Social gathering of The US Home of Representatives has proposed the Fashionable Emoluments and Malfeasance Enforcement (MEME) Act, aiming to ban federal officers from selling numerous monetary property or collaborating in conducts that would financially profit them from these property.
This transfer follows the launch of the TRUMP and MELANIA memecoins by the US Presidential Household, which has raised issues in regards to the dangers of Politician-issued tokens.
Solana (SOL) trades at $147.53 within the one-week chart. Supply: SOLUSDT on TradingView
Featured Picture from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com
