A hacker hijacked the WeChat account of Binance co-founder Yi He to carry out a pump-and-dump scheme involving the Mubarakah token, generating roughly $55,000 in profits.
This breach highlights rising concerns about the manipulation of cryptocurrency markets through compromised social media accounts. Security analysts swiftly tracked the hacker’s transactions, uncovering the details of the fraudulent operation.
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Binance Co-Founder’s Account Hacked in Meme Coin Scam
The hacker accessed Yi He’s WeChat account and reportedly forwarded an article about the Mubarakah token. For context, WeChat is a widely used messaging and payment application with a massive user base, particularly in China and across East and Southeast Asia.
“Specifically, it might be due to forwarding a modified public account article,” a user reported.
Changpeng Zhao confirmed the breach and urged caution. He also pointed out that traditional social platforms lack strong security.
“Someone hacked @heyibinance’s WeChat account. Do not buy meme coins from the hackers posts. Web 2 social media security is not that strong. Stay safu!” he posted.
Meanwhile, blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain traced the hacker’s actions. The attacker created two new wallets roughly seven hours ago, using 19,479 USDT to acquire 21.16 million Mubarakah tokens at low prices.
Following the fraudulent post from Yi He’s compromised account, Mubarakah’s price soared. Data from Geckoterminal showed that the meme coin rose to a high of $0.008 in early Asian trading hours today.
This marked a pump of nearly 200%. Mubarakah’s market cap also exceeded $8 million. At the time of writing, it was trading at $0.0025, representing an increase of over 172%.
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Lookonchain revealed that the hacker has already offloaded 11.95 million tokens for 43,520 USDT. The wallets used were: 0x6739b732C14515997Caa8deCb6C047dc1c02Fb9c and 0xD0B8Ea6AF32A4F44Ed7F8A5E4E7b959239f5AE1D.
“After the pump, the hacker has already sold 11.95 million Mubarakah for 43,520 USDT and still holds 9.21 million Mubarakah($31,000), for a total profit of $55,000,” the post read.
This incident follows the compromise of Tron founder Justin Sun’s WeChat account in late November.
“Both are using the method of posting Meme shitcoins in Moments to scam people. It feels like it’s specifically targeting the WeChat accounts of top Web3 big shots for theft. On-chain ‘hacker competitions’ are intense, and they’re starting to move the ‘battlefield’ off-chain. Also, WeChat isn’t one of the safest social media platforms—how are the scammers getting the passwords/SIM card info and such to carry out the theft?” a market watcher said.
The hijacking of social media accounts to push crypto scams has become a recurring issue in the industry. Attackers have targeted public figures across politics, entertainment, and business to exploit their visibility.
For instance, in October, attackers breached the official X account of BNB Chain and used it to advertise a fake “BNB HODLer Airdrop.” Earlier this year, hackers gained control of the former Malaysian Prime Minister’s X account to promote a deceptive meme coin scheme.
In another case last December, Canadian rapper Drake had his account compromised and used to hype a fraudulent meme coin called “Anita.” These are just a few of the many cases that continue to plague the crypto ecosystem, highlighting the industry’s ongoing struggle with security and impersonation attacks.
