NBA hacked by crypto scammers

Contrary to what their own social media accounts claimed, the NBA is not about to launch their own cryptocurrencies.

The ‘news’ emerged on Tuesday afternoon when the NBA’s account on X, formerly known as Twitter, told its 48.1 million followers that $NBA Coin would soon be launched on the Solana network.

The announcement claimed that a “a groundbreaking digital asset” was coming, “designed to redefine fan engagement, transactions and experiences within the basketball ecosystem.” It was, of course, nonsense and the posts were quickly deleted.

The issue was also seen across other official accounts, with the Spanish (402k followers) and British (102k followers) accounts also sending out the same announcement. The official NASCAR account issued a similar statement around the same time to announce the apparent release of $NASCAR Coin. Again, this was the result of a hack.

It’s not clear exactly what the hackers' intention was, given that the messages were swiftly deleted and there was no request for payment or personal details. Nevertheless, it is an embarrassing moment for both the NBA and NASCAR who had their official social media channels hacked into by scammers.

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