On August 21, 2024, hackers gained control of McDonald's official Instagram account and used it to promote a fraudulent memecoin named "Grimace," based on the fast-food chain’s purple mascot. The scam involved the hackers using the platform to advertise the token as a "McDonald’s experiment on Solana," misleading many of McDonald's 5.1 million followers. As a result, the market capitalization of the Grimace token soared to $25 million within just 30 minutes, but it quickly crashed as the hackers sold off their holdings. The scam netted the perpetrators over $700,000 in Solana, leaving many investors with significant losses. Following the incident, McDonald's quickly regained control of the account and removed the misleading posts.This incident highlights the growing issue of memecoin scams, where tokens with little or no inherent value are hyped on social media platforms before being dumped by their creators, often leaving investors in the lurch. McDonald’s later issued a statement apologising to its followers for the incident and any offensive content posted during the hack​.