Hacker Who Compromised Andy Ayrey’s X Account, Sells $PNUT Assets Early, Loses $31.6M
The Hacker's impatience made them miss out on taking a potential $31.6 Million in Profits
On October 29, Andy Ayrey, the developer of the AI-powered Truth Terminal bot had his X account compromised. The hacker used the account to promote meme tokens, resulting in a pump-and-dump scheme.
Zach XBT however has revealed that in the hacker’s haste, they missed out on a potential $31.6 million profit by prematurely selling $PNUT assets.
Ayrey’s X Account Compromised in a Pump and Dump Scheme
On October 29 at 1:50 am UTC, Ayrey’s X account posted a cryptic announcement about a new meme token called Infinite Backrooms (IB), including an image of the token’s contract address. This post quickly caught the attention of the crypto community, causing the token’s market cap to soar to an astonishing $25 million. In a matter of minutes, IB’s price peaked at $0.025, drawing investors in.
Using the compromised account, the hacker managed to purchase 124.6 million IB tokens for $38,400 right before announcing the token.
However, as the excitement soared, the hacker quickly liquidated their entire holding within 45 minutes, profiting about $602,500 from the sell-off.
This sudden pump and dump led IB’s price to plummet, bringing the token’s value to near zero. As at the time of writing, IB trades at a measly $0.002, according to data from Coingecko.
Hacker Early $PNUT Sell-Off, a Missed Fortune
While the hacker profited from the IB pump and dump scheme, Zach XBT, a white hatter, has revealed on his telegram channel that their sell-off of Ayrey’s $PNUT assets turned into a massive loss.
“On-chain clown of the day: The threat actor who hacked Andy Ayrey sold PNUT early for $6.4K and missed out on $31.6M.
Wallet address
Gx3uCAS7su6HjVASf74KkPgsU23DP5sg8LmqiHStXmmT” Zach XBT revealed on his telegram platform.
Shortly after selling the stolen assets, PNUT, a meme coin inspired by a squirrel named Peanut, was listed on Binance. This led to a massive surge in the memecoin’s value, with the token climbing 1,524% over the following week to reach a high of $2.09, ultimately hitting a $2.1 billion market cap.
The hackers sold Ayrey’s $PNUT holdings early, taking only $6,400; a tiny amount compared to the possible $31.6 million they could have taken if they had held onto the assets until the Binance listing.
As of now, data from Coingecko shows $PNUT is currently trading at $1.71 with a 12.7% increase over the last day.
