CZ Warns Users After Hacker Promotes Mubarakah Meme Coin On Binance Co-Founder Yi He’s WeChat

Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) warned users after a hacker hijacked co-CEO Yi He’s WeChat account and promoted the meme coin Mubarakah, sending its price soaring more than 157%.

CZ confirmed the incident on X, urging users to ignore posts from the compromised account, and not to buy any cryptos promoted by it.

Yi He said she no longer uses WeChat, and that the hacker also seized the phone number linked to her account, preventing her from regaining access.

WeChat is a widely-used messaging and payment app that has a massive user base in China and across parts of Asia.

Early Wallet Activity Shows Planning Behind The Attack

In the build up to the attack, the hacker had created two new wallets using 19,479 USDT, according to on-chain analytics firm Lookonchain. Those funds were used to purchase 21.16 million Mubarakah tokens at low prices. 

The addresses of those wallets are “0x6739b732C14515997Caa8deCb6C047dc1c02Fb9c” and “0xD0B8Ea6AF32A4F44Ed7F8A5E4E7b959239f5AE1D.”

The meme coin’s price went on to surge, with CoinGecko data showing its price reached as high as $0.006365 in the past trading day. It has since corrected to trade at $0.003363 as of 3:23 a.m. EST, still up over 157%. 

Mubarakah price (Source: CoinGecko)

Lookonchain noted that the hacker started dumping tokens amid its price surge. 

Following the large pump, the firm said the hacker sold 11.95 million tokens for a profit of around 43,520 USDT. It added that the hacker still holds 9.21 million tokens valued at $31K. Overall, the firm said that the hacker made a profit of around $55K. 

Crypto Space Has Seen A Series Of Social Media Hacks Recently

Yi He’s WeChat account hack follows a similar incident against Tron founder Justin Sun. In late November, hackers gained control of Sun’s WeChat account to spread fake endorsements of a low-cap meme coin. 

“Both are using the method of posting Meme shitcoins in Moments to scam people,” a market watcher said in a translated post on X. “It feels like it’s specifically targeting the WeChat accounts of top Web3 big shots for theft. On-chain ‘hacker competitions’ are intense, and they’re starting to move the ‘battlefield’ off-chain. WeChat isn’t one of the safest social media platforms—how are the scammers getting the passwords/SIM card info and such to carry out the theft?” 

The hacks on Yi He’s and Sun’s accounts are not the first time illicit actors have gained control of an influential figure’s social profile. Similar SIM swap attacks have also been performed on X accounts. 

Among those attacks is the one performed on the official X account of BNB Chain in October. The hacker used the account to advertise a fake “BNB HODLer Airdrop.”

Earlier this year, hackers also gained control of the former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s X account to promote a deceptive meme coin scheme.

And Canadian rapper Drake had his account compromised and used to hype up a fake meme coin called “Anita.”