An X account pretending to be the CEO of Hong Kong, John Lee Ka-Chiu, launched a false national cryptocurrency on the Token Launchpad Pump.fun. The story promoted the token to its thousands of disciples, apparently aimed at capitalizing on the recent political frenzy of the same.
The Hong Kong government denies the national cryptocurrency
On Thursday, an X account under the name of user “Johnleek_chiu” announced the “National Hong Kong Coin” (Hkong). In the post now deleted, the imitator of the chief executive declared that “the strategic stage” marked a “new era of digital innovation and economic growth for Hong Kong”.
A few hours later, the account said that the token would be officially launched at 2:00 p.m. in Hong Kong, but it was postponed to 5:00 p.m. Before the launch, the imitator interacted with several X accounts, responding to US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The account also responded to the heated exchange of the founder of Barstool Sports, Dave Portnoy, with the American actor Nick Cannon, who recently launched a Solana Memecoin. In the position, the imitator thanked Portnoy for having pretended to help the government of Hong Kong “with the launch of the national cryptocurrency of Hong Kong”.
John Lee Ka-chiu impersonator replies to Dave Portnoy. Source: Blake Allen on X
Some cryptographic investors have discussed whether the managing director had been hacked and if the announcement was a scam, because the X account displayed a gray verification brand, which indicates that a account represents a government or a multilateral organization.
Nevertheless, the official Facebook page of John Lee Ka-Chiu denied the links to the X account and explained that the government did not launch cryptocurrency. “Public members should not wrongly believe that false information saying that the CEO announced the launch of the Hong Kong national play,” said the post.
He said that someone pretended to be him to defraud the unsupported investors, warning him “be careful to look for evidence and check the authenticity of the information to prevent them from being deceived”.
Is the same political party over?
On X, member of the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Johnny NG, echoed the same warning:
To be absolutely clear – the government confirmed that it was completely false and designed to defraud people. Please be careful there and do not fall into this tip!
This incident has raised concerns concerning the verification and security of the X account, as it follows a long list of pirated X accounts used to promote cryptographic scams. A user pointed out that the imitator probably hacked the story of Indian officials and changed the username, name and biography to carry out the program.
In particular, the account had previously published photos of the Prime Minister of India and republished several positions of various Indian officials. In addition, he deleted all the articles related to the national cryptocurrency of Hong Kong and changed his username to “Moftransilvanie”, suggesting that the pirates remain in control of the account.
Some users have also stressed that the scam did not have dynamism since the pirate was not launched and quickly posted the address of the token contract (CA), which allowed investors to see the various red flags. Consequently, the Hkong token only reached a market capitalization of $ 200,000 before collapsing.
Others have stressed that the launch of the same politician or politician has already done “enough damage” to the cryptography industry, noting the “experience” of the Central Republic of Africa (CAR), and the Token Crash (balance) linked to Argentina (balance).
As reported by Bitcoiniste, the Democratic Party of the House of Representatives of the United States has proposed the modern law in matters of emoluments and the application of embezzlement (even), aimed at prohibiting federal officials from promoting various financial assets or to participate in conduits who could benefit them financially from these assets.
This decision follows the launch of the same Trump and Melania by the American presidential family, who raised concerns about the risks of token issued by the politician.
Solana (SOL) trades at $147.53 in the one-week chart. Source: SOLUSDT on TradingView
Star image of Unsplash.com, tradingView.com graphic
