In the wild west of memecoins and crypto hype, a brazen new scam has been exposed – and swiftly shut down. Hackers briefly seized control of the official Twitter account for the Saudi Law Conference, using it to fraudulently promote a so-called “Saudi Arabia Memecoin” ($KSA) that falsely claimed endorsement from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The audacious scheme, which unfolded on the morning of February 17th, involved a series of tweets from the compromised @Saudilawconf handle announcing the imminent launch of the “official token of Saudi Arabia.” A follow-up post provided the token address for the $KSA memecoin on the Solana blockchain, urging followers to get in early.
Fake Royal Endorsement Fails to Convince
Sharp-eyed crypto watchers quickly noticed several red flags with the supposed Saudi state cryptocurrency. The first giveaway was that the tweets came not from any of the official government accounts, but from the handle of a Saudi legal conference that had clearly been hacked.
Furthermore, the notion that the conservative Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would abruptly launch a state-backed memecoin, of all things, struck most observers as patently absurd. Tellingly, the token was deployed using a pre-existing smart contract on the Pump.fun platform – a sure sign of a quick cash grab rather than any official project.
Amateur Hour on the Blockchain
Indeed, on-chain data reveals that the $KSA token’s creators didn’t even bother to generate a fresh token for their ruse. Instead, they recycled an existing memecoin originally minted on February 10th.
The situation demonstrates the amateurism of the hacker. It seems extremely curious to reuse an already existing token.
– On-chain analyst ZachXBT
Luckily, the Saudilawconf team managed to quickly regain control of their Twitter account, posting an announcement to disavow the “pirated” tweets and fraudulent cryptocurrency. By that point, on-chain data showed the memecoin had utterly failed to gain traction, with a market cap that never broke $100,000.
Memecoins Continue to Attract Scammers
The $KSA debacle is just the latest in a string of shameless memecoin rug pulls and social media hacks plaguing the crypto space. Earlier this week, a rogue LIBRA token unaffiliated with the Libra Association soared after the President of Argentina name-dropped it in an interview (before plunging over 95%).
- Earlier this month, the Twitter account of a major financial firm co-founder was hacked to shill a “Barron memecoin” scam
- In January, the price of a “Trump memecoin” went parabolic after Elon Musk mentioned it jokingly, only to crash soon after
As long as crypto hype and speculation run wild, scammers will continue attempting to cash in on the memecoin craze through misinformation, impersonation, and social engineering tricks. Investors are advised to treat all new memecoin projects with extreme skepticism.
Key Takeaways
- Hackers compromised the Twitter account of the Saudi Law Conference to promote a fraudulent “Saudi Arabia Memecoin”
- The $KSA token claimed false endorsement from the Saudi crown prince in an attempt to lend legitimacy to the scheme
- Alert crypto users quickly saw through the obvious scam, and the token gained little traction before the hack was addressed
- The incident highlights the ongoing risks and prevalence of memecoin-based fraud in the speculative crypto market
