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The NBA and NASCAR’s official X accounts were hacked, falsely announcing the launch of cryptocurrency tokens on the Solana blockchain.
The NBA’s official X account, followed by over 48 million users, posted a now-deleted tweet introducing ‘$NBA Coin.’ The tweet claimed the digital asset was intended to “redefine fan engagement, transactions, and experiences within the basketball ecosystem.”
The tweet remained live for about five minutes before being removed. Shortly afterwards, an NBA spokesperson confirmed to Front Office Sports that the league’s account had been compromised but declined to provide further details regarding the breach.
The attack was not isolated to the NBA’s primary account. Official NBA X accounts for Spain and the UK were also affected, posting identical messages about the fictitious crypto project. However, some regional NBA accounts, including those for Latin America and the Philippines, appeared untouched.
The incident escalated with NASCAR’s official X account, boasting 3.6 million followers, published a similar fraudulent tweet promoting ‘$NASCAR Coin.’ NASCAR also confirmed the incident.
Hackers frequently target the social media accounts of high-profile individuals and companies. These accounts often have hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of followers, providing a broader reach for spreading scams.
The number of followers is crucial because the tweets promoting the scam are online for only a short time. Therefore, less time means more followers in this context.
For instance, last year MicroStrategy’s X account, boasting over 190,000 followers, was hacked. The hackers flooded it with posts containing links to airdrop an Ethereum-based MSTR token. This token was marketed falsely as MicroStrategy’s official cryptocurrency.
Similarly, OpenAI’s official press account was also hacked to promote a non-existent blockchain token called ‘$OPENAI.’
In the third case, the security firm Mandiant’s Twitter account was hacked. In this instance as well, the scammers promoted cryptocurrency fraud.
Finally, Microsoft India’s X account was similarly hacked by Roaring Kitty, a meme stock trader, to promote a malicious GameStop crypto presale.
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