Key Takeaways
Hackers used SpaceXAI and Starlink X accounts on July 12 to push SCATMAN, which hit a $32M market cap.Lookonchain says the attacker dumped 10 trillion tokens across two wallets for 73.7 ETH, roughly $135,000.Robinhood Chain, live since July 1, faces a wave of scam tokens as Relay Protocol blocks honeypot listings.
A Verified-Account Playbook Strikes Elon Musk’s Companies
The compromise unfolded Sunday when both accounts, which belong to Elon Musk’s rocket maker SpaceX and its satellite internet unit Starlink, began amplifying promotional posts for the token before the companies regained control and deleted the material. Onchain data platform Solanafloor first flagged the breach on X with popular analytics firm Lookonchain, subsequently revealing:
A hacker launched a token called SCATMAN and promoted it after hacking the @SpaceXAI and @Starlink accounts. The hacker then minted 10T SCATMAN and dumped all for 59 ETH ($108K).
A second wallet controlled by the same attacker sold another 59.28 million SCATMAN for 14.7 ETH, worth about $27,000, bringing total proceeds to roughly 73.7 ETH. The token’s market capitalization reached $32 million at its peak before sliding as the dump hit, while 24-hour trading volume climbed to $5.7 million.
The scheme is a familiar one where miscreants hijack a verified corporate account with millions of followers, attach a token to the brand’s credibility, and sell into the buying frenzy. Musk-linked names have long been a favorite lure for crypto scammers, and the SpaceX and Starlink handles rank among the most recognizable brands on X.
New Chain, Old Scams
SCATMAN was deployed on Robinhood Chain, the trading platform’s layer-2 network that went live on July 1. The chain’s permissionless design has let anyone deploy tokens at scale, and its early days have been marked by a flood of fraudulent assets alongside legitimate projects.
As Bitcoin.com News reported, cross-chain interoperability platform Relay Protocol has warned of honeypot tokens on the network (coins hardcoded so buyers cannot sell, or that transfer funds straight to an attacker). The platform stated:
There’s been an increase in scam tokens designed to remove themselves after purchase. We are blocking such tokens as they appear and verifying safe ones.
The SCATMAN incident layers a social media compromise on top of that environment. A token bearing a joke name, minted in the trillions and promoted through hijacked flagship accounts, was able to attract $32 million in paper value within hours of the chain’s second week in operation. For buyers who chased the posts, the losses were immediate once liquidity drained.
Neither SpaceX nor X had issued a detailed statement on how the accounts were breached at the time of writing. Both accounts were restored and the promotional posts removed by Sunday evening.
In any case, the unanswered question is still attribution since Lookonchain’s wallet trail gives investigators a starting point, and previous high-profile X account compromises have drawn scrutiny from U.S. authorities. Whether this one produces an enforcement response or simply another entry in the long ledger of celebrity-brand token scams should become clearer in the days ahead.
