On the evening of July 12, attackers compromised the official SpaceXAI and Starlink accounts on X and used them to promote the SCATMAN memecoin, which was launched on Robinhood Chain.
Posts published through the verified accounts quickly spread across the crypto community, triggering a surge in interest in the token. SCATMAN rapidly reached a market capitalization of $2 M before the organizers dumped their holdings, causing the token’s price to collapse.
How the Incident Unfolded
After taking control of the official SpaceXAI and Starlink profiles, the attackers began publishing posts promoting SCATMAN. The messages came from a parody account that carried a label linking it to SpaceX, creating the impression that the project had official backing.
The memecoin was launched on Robinhood Chain, a Layer-2 network introduced on July 1, 2026, for tokenized stocks and real-world assets. Once the promotional posts appeared on accounts with large audiences, market participants began buying the token in large numbers.
Before launching the promotion, the attackers had already minted the entire SCATMAN supply. After the token reached its peak market capitalization, they began selling their holdings, sending the price into a steep decline. The scheme ended with the organizers cashing out the proceeds.
Financial Impact
The attackers walked away with approximately $135 K. They converted most of their holdings into about 59 ETH, while a related wallet sold an additional batch of tokens worth roughly $27 K.
SCATMAN plunged by more than 90%, leaving some investors with significant losses. One trader, for example, lost around $25 K after buying the token during the surge in trading activity.
The SpaceXAI and Starlink teams quickly regained control of their accounts. They removed all of the malicious posts without issuing any public comments or explanations.