McDonald's hack unveiled as $700M Grimace meme coin crypto stunt

Crypto scammers on Wednesday hacked into McDonald’s official Instagram account – all to promote a Grimace meme coin – and reportedly made a cool $700 million off the marketing stunt.

First there was Dogecoin, now there is the Grimace meme coin that’s become the center of crypto controversy.

Hackers took over the beloved hamburger chain’s Instagram account, crafting a fake post and even editing McDonald’s account profile on Wednesday morning.

It seems the hack was actually a carefully thought-out marketing strategy to promote the Grimace meme coin, which is in no way associated with the real McDonald’s brand.

For those who have never heard of the McDonald’s milkshake-loving mascot named Grimace, the character, first introduced in 1971, is supposed to be the “embodiment” of a milkshake, the company has said about the purple blob.

The Grimace coin is based on the Solana blockchain platform, which is known for having “an active and intense meme ecosystem…attracting the most active crypto traders,” and is popular for “launching meme coin projects,” says Solana meme coin development company, the BlockChain App Factory.

Hackers take over Mickey D's Insta

The successful marketing ploy saw the Grimace token shoot up “to a market capitalization of around $20 million before plummeting to below $1 million,” reported FinanceFeeds, citing data from Pump.fun, a meme coin creator website on the Solana platform.

“A McDonald’s experiment on Solana,” the hackers posted on the IG account just before 11:30 a.m. ET, as seen here in a personal screenshot provided by the Cybernews research team.

McDonald’s Insta profile at one point read “thank you for the $700,000 in Solana,” most likely referencing the hackers' ability to cash in on the manipulated Grimace meme stock rally.

The compromised Instagram post has since been deleted with McDonald’s reportedly taking back control over the account within a half hour.

Still, remnants of the social media account breach was still floating on the internet hours later.

“McDonald’s Instagram hacked account recovered but still has this Telegram link,” security researcher Dominic Alvieri noted on X later in the day.

hahaha Telegram

McDonald’s Instagram hacked account recovered but still has this Telegram link. pic.twitter.com/kmFgkdrw26

undefined Dominic Alvieri (@AlvieriD) August 21, 2024

From meme jokin' to meme token

Introduced in March of 2022, the Grimace decentralized token was first offered on the Doge blockchain, but is now operating on the Arbitrum One blockchain, reputation listed on the site as “unknown.”

Apparently, the token originated from a social media exchange between Elon Musk and McDonald's on Twitter, gaining traction soon after it was introduced, according to the ‘Grimace Coin’ cryptocurrency website.

“$GRIMACE has evolved from a meme joke into a genuinely useful project, gaining significant influence and value,” the website explains.

A Disclaimer at the bottom of the Grimace Coin site clearly states that “$GRIMACE is not affiliated with McDonald’s Corporation.”

It further declares that the creator “never uses the [copyrighted] Grimace character for "commercial purposes," adding that $GRIMACE team members are “always open to communicate and cooperate” with the fast food chain.

“$GRIMACE respects McDonald’s brand values and supports the brand as a fan in all possible communication channels,” Grimace Coin said.

McDonald's, which shows 5.1 million followers on its Instagram account, has not commented on the stunt.

Meme coin stock rallies are the rage

Last month, US pop singer Doja Cat had her X account hacked to promote a Solana-based meme coin named "$DOJA" token.

Elon Musk and his Dogecoin, one of the most famous meme coins to date, caused its own stir in the past with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

SEC regulators sued Musk for market manipulation and defrauding investors in what they labeled as a Dogecoin pyramid scheme, which took place in 2021.

“If a large enough number of people in the community values it because it’s cute, because they like the meme, then it has value,” former Binance exchange CEO Changpeng Zhao said back in 2021 when meme coins first started trending in the crypto world.

Musk is accused of knowingly promoting the coin on social media (and on Saturday Night Live), artificially inflating its value, reputation, and price. Investors buying into the sham, eventually lost their money when the coin eventually crashed.

The Dogecoin case is still moving through the courts at present.

To note, Zhao in April was sentenced to four months in federal prison for violating US anti-money laundering laws while CEO at Binance – unrelated to meme coins.