Hulk Hogan denies memecoin shilling posts on X — ‘not from me’
Retired pro wrestler “Hulk Hogan” claims he wasn’t responsible for multiple now-deleted X posts spruiking the Solana memecoin HULKAMANIA (HULK), which pumped then dumped within two hours.
“Please do not take notice of any posts posted today,” Hogan — real name Terry Gene Bollea — wrote In a June 5 Instagram post. “They are not from me and will be promptly removed.”
The entirety of Hogan’s X posts have been removed, but at the time of writing Google Search’s cache shows Hogan’s X account made several posts promoting a Solana-based token HULK.
“No one can compete with $HULK not even your mother!” one cached post said, seemingly pitting it against rapper Iggy Azalea’s Mother Iggy (MOTHER) memecoin. Another shared a link to the token on DEX Screener.
Further posts shared by Mashable reporter Matt Binder, which Cointelegraph couldn’t independently verify, show a video of Hogan that is made to seem to refer to the token launch, but Binder notes its a video from December promoting a karaoke night.
HULK reached a peak market capitalization of $18.8 million on June 6, 7:40 pm UTC — just over an hour and a half after it launched.
It then dumped to a market cap of $2 million 20 minutes later, where it has remained since, according to DEX Screener.
Crypto analytics firm Bubblemaps claimed its data shows five wallets purchased 15% of the HULK supply on the meme token launch platform pump.fun before Hogan’s X account shared the token.
The wallets had sold $200,000 worth of $1.5 million in unrealized gains as of around June 6, 8:00 pm UTC, Bubblemaps said.
It’s not clear if Hogan’s account was hacked, and if it was, how it happened. Hogan’s team did not respond to a request for comment.
Related: Vitalik Buterin slams celebrity memecoins
The claimed hack comes amid a slate of B-list celebrities launching their own crypto tokens.
Reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner along with rappers Iggy Azalea and Rich the Kid launched and endorsed Solana-based tokens last month.
All of them — besides Azalea’s MOTHER — have tanked by over 60%. MOTHER recently hit an all-time high as the Fancy rapper has gained support for vowing to clean up her token.
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