Kylian Mbappé Token Hit a $464 Million Market Cap—Then Crashed to Zero Because It Was Fake

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  • Aug 28, 2024

Real Madrid and France National Team soccer star Kylian Mbappé appeared to have his Twitter account hacked late Wednesday as the account went on a rampage with a string of offensive comments about fellow athletes and rival clubs—all while promoting a meme coin that rapidly pumped and then dumped.

The MBAPPE token on Solana quickly hit a market cap of $464 million before falling 99%—all in the span of a minute. That was enough to, very briefly, give it a higher market cap than Mog Coin , Raydium , and ApeCoin , for example. Now it has a market cap of just $57,000.

This Twitter account belonging to the second most-expensive soccer player of all time shared the contract address with Mbappé's 14.4 million Twitter followers .

Kylian Mbappé Token Hit a $464 Million Market Cap—Then Crashed to Zero Because It Was Fake
A now-deleted tweet from the pump-and-dump crypto scam. Screenshot: Decrypt

But this success was short-lived. In fact, the token only sat around this price for about five seconds.

In the 47 seconds that followed, the token fell 99% to a market cap of $4.58 million. One lucky trader was able to time the top perfectly, turning $29 into a whopping $125,790 in just three minutes.

Kylian Mbappé Token Hit a $464 Million Market Cap—Then Crashed to Zero Because It Was Fake
One lucky trader timed the top and made $125,790. Image: DEX Screener.

Not everyone was so fortunate, however.

Another trader bought $1 million worth of MBAPPE a second before the token skyrocketed 4,000%, but they didn’t sell. Their $1 million investment is now worth just $14,600 according to DEX Screener .

It appears Mbappé had his Twitter account hacked, as this token scam tweet came amid a broader spree of posts pointing abuse at former teammate Lionel Messi , claiming he was going to move to English club Manchester United for free, and shouting out Twitter users.

All of Kylian Mbappe’s hacked tweets incase you missed it…

A thread ? pic.twitter.com/4XEpWpnXQA

— george (@StokeyyG2) August 29, 2024

Decrypt reached out to Mbappé's representatives for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

In one post, the soccer player’s account posted a message saying: “Ok, I’ll admit it’s Sahil.” This message appears to reference Sahil Arora , the infamous crypto promoter who drove a large part of the celebrity meme coin market after launching a Solana token with media personality and Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner .

Arora confirmed to Decrypt that he was behind the Mbappe meme coin, but declined to expand further when asked if he hacked the account himself or if he made a deal with the person who had taken control.

“I cannot give more details on it. It’s sensitive,” Arora told Decrypt via Telegram. “Just know there’s a lot more coming.”

The Mbappé scandal comes following a rash of hacked social media accounts for brands and celebrities alike—including McDonald's , Metallica , Hulk Hogan , and Doja Cat —used to promote pump-and-dump crypto token scams.