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Exploited Twitter Account of Activision Blizzard Shares Misleading Meme Coin on Solana
The official Twitter account of gaming giant Activision Blizzard—the publisher of the Call of Duty and Diablo franchises—was compromised on Thursday night and used to promote an apparently unrelated meme coin on the Solana blockchain, falsely presenting it as an official token launch.
Screenshots of tweets that have since been removed featured an image of Crash Bandicoot, a popular gaming character owned by Activision, along with claims of introducing an ATVI token developed in collaboration with Solana Labs, the primary team behind the Solana network. The tweets also contained a URL leading to listings for a Solana meme coin available for trading on decentralized exchanges.
While there is indeed an ATVI token on Solana, it does not seem to have any affiliation with Activision Blizzard or Solana Labs. Crypto tokens can be created by anyone on a decentralized network, and meme coins are often inspired by various internet phenomena, public figures, companies, news events, and more.
Limited Impact of the Scam
The attempt to pass off the ATVI token as an official Activision Blizzard asset does not appear to have affected many individuals. Data from DexScreener shows that the token has recorded trades totaling $16,000 across fewer than 500 transactions, with its value plummeting by 99.9% since a brief surge on Thursday. Currently, it is priced at a fraction of a cent.
Following the incident, a tweet from the @ATVI_AB account reassured followers, stating, “Thank you for your patience. We have regained control of the @ATVI_AB account. We take security seriously and we plan to investigate what occurred to avoid situations such as these in the future.”
Activision Blizzard opted not to provide additional comments beyond the issued statement. The company was acquired by tech giant Microsoft last autumn for nearly $69 billion after facing regulatory hurdles for over a year.
Attempts to obtain remarks or further information from Twitter regarding the incident did not yield an immediate response.
Rise of Meme Coins on Solana
In recent months, Solana has experienced a surge in meme coin popularity due to its low transaction fees. Tokens such as Dogwifhat (WIF) and Bonk (BONK) that operate on the Solana blockchain are among the most valuable cryptocurrencies globally by market capitalization. Recent trends in Solana meme coins have included variations of famous politicians’ names with intentional misspellings.
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