Pokemon responds after official X account hacked to sell memecoin

Pokemon fans were met with an unexpected 30th anniversary announcement after the franchise’s official X account appeared to launch its own memecoin.

However, Pikachu was not suddenly entering the cryptocurrency market, as the account had been hacked, with those responsible attempting to use Pokemon’s massive audience and anniversary celebrations to promote a fake coin.

The suspicious post appeared on Pokemon’s official X account and read: “Celebrate 30 years of Pokemon in a whole new way! Introducing $POKEMON, the official Pokemon memecoin.” It also included a contract address for the coin and a link for users to click.

However, the announcement was not shared across Pokemon’s other official channels, prompting fans to quickly warn others that the account may have been compromised.

Those concerns were soon confirmed. Pokemon regained control of the account and removed the cryptocurrency promotion less than an hour after it appeared.

Pokemon responds to X account hack

Shortly after recovering the account, Pokemon published an official response confirming that the hack lasted for around 30 minutes.

“The Pokemon handle on X was temporarily compromised earlier for ~30 minutes,” the company said, going on to add: “We’re aware that our X account was accessed without authorization and used to publish posts promoting a cryptocurrency. These posts were not created or approved by Pokemon and have been removed. We have secured the account and are investigating the incident. We’re sorry for the confusion and appreciate your patience.”

Pokemon did not reveal how its X account was accessed or whether anyone interacted with the cryptocurrency before the fake promotion was removed, but both the original memecoin promotion and Pokemon’s subsequent warning about the hack have since disappeared from the account.

For now, Pokemon has not provided any further updates on its investigation into the incident.