Nearly a month after Caitlyn Jenner launched her JENNER token, the celebrity memecoin frenzy continues. This time, iconic heavy metal band Metallica has joined the list of public figures involved with Solana tokens. However, the band’s participation in the crypto industry was more of an X-account hack targeting investors.
Solana-Based METAL Takes Over Crypto
Iconic heavy metal band Metallica recently announced a collaboration with the popular video game Fortnite. The collaboration is apparently aimed at bringing the band’s music to a new demographic of music lovers.
However, the announcement was overshadowed by the Metallica X account’s failed “attempt” to “join” a different community. On Tuesday night, the account shared a post offering a Solana-based token for your fans.
The post announced the release of METAL, a supposed collaboration between the band and Ticketmaster. The token was described as a “dynamic new token on the Solana blockchain poised to revolutionize the way you experience online events and shopping.”
Unlike other celebrity memecoins scams, the token offered utility from the beginning. Users who used METAL to purchase concert tickets would receive exclusive Ticketmaster discounts of up to 25%. METAL holders would also have the chance to win free tickets through “exclusive airdrops.”
The X posts announced three “insanely rare Metal Token Xbox Series X consoles” signed for token holders. Furthermore, it promised that the METAL token would “seamlessly integrate into your shopping experience, powered by Solana’s reliability for effortless transactions.”
Master of tokens or master of nothing?
Metallica fans and crypto investors quickly grew wary of the posts. Users began debating whether the ads were fake and whether the account had been hacked. One suggested the band wasn’t going to “ruin their reputation by releasing shit” and attacking her.
Despite initial user suspicion, several users fell for the meticulously planned fraud. As one community member highlighted, the post graphics, and the posts themselves, were “very well done”. The attackers also assured users that METAL was not a scam and that the band was “in it for the long haul.”
The hacker also claimed that crypto payments company MoonPay was collaborating with the band. However, the company quickly denied His involvement, stating that the person responsible for the hack was not the puppet master, but the “scam master”.
As a pointed, the market capitalization of the Solana-based token surpassed $2 million. However, it quickly plummeted after the band regained access to the X account and deleted the promotional posts.
Yet one investor managed to become a token master. Online Reports revealed that a trader turned a $3,380 investment into $24,600. The “lucky” investor bought the tokens with a market value of US$50,000 and sold them at the height of the scam.
At the time of writing, the token is trading at $0.00002031, down 99.3% from its all-time high price of $0.003353. Furthermore, METAL’s market cap is $20,000, representing a drop of 9,000%.