After the launch of the official Trump memecoin, more politicians are jumping on the bandwagon. Most recently, Myanmar appeared to launch its own memecoin. However, with the prevalence of crypto scams, it is challenging to distinguish fact from fiction.
In the case of the supposed Myanmar memecoin, the token showed clear signs of being a scam from the start. This suspicion was confirmed when Myanmar’s military junta leader likely suffered a hack. Furthermore, scammers took advantage of the situation to launch several tokens as the “official” Myanmar token.
On Saturday, February 22, the official X account of Myanmar’s military junta leader made several posts about a supposed memecoin launch. The account posing as the State Administration Council Chairman Min Aung Hlaing announced the launch of “Myanmar Republic’s national crypto.”
The launch quickly drew suspicion due to the account’s frequent interactions with other crypto-related posts. Replies to the original post were limited, preventing potential critics from voicing their concerns. Some users still took to X to warn potential victims of the scam.
Myanmar Memecoin Launched Several Scams
In several since-deleted posts, the account published crypto wallet addresses, only to delete the posts later. After that, the account announced that the launch was postponed and proceeded to post a different address.
At least one of the tokens, MYANMAR, saw a 95% decline within minutes, indicating a potential rug pull. One X user claimed that they sold their token seconds before it crashed. As of the time of writing, the scam continues, and Myanmar officials have yet to address the situation.
Myanmar’s leader was not the only government account involved in similar scams. For instance, former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s X account was hacked in early February. The account promoted MALAYSIA memecoin, which hackers then rug-pulled for $1.7 million.
In late January, the same thing happened to the Cuban government’s official X. The “Official Cuba Coin” was soon revealed to be a scam. Similarly, scammers impersonated Donald Trump to promote a scam token called POWER.
Hackers target high-profile accounts to add legitimacy to their memecoins. When traders see prominent figures promoting a token, they are more likely to invest and potentially lose all their money to scammers.
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