The X account of TV star Dean Norris was hacked to push a memecoin that used his image as part of a pump-and-dump scam.
The X account of Dean Norris, who played Hank Schrader in the television show Breaking Bad, was hacked to promote a memecoin that used his image and reached a peak value of more than $8 million.
Best known for playing Hank Schrader on Breaking Bad, Norris said in a video uploaded to his X account on January 26 that he was hacked and that the memecoin DEAN was a “full, fake scam.”
Reddit users, according to the actor, have called him every kind of shit for a thing he didn’t do.
Breaking Bad Actor’s X Account And Memecoin Fraud
Users captured images of the initial and later tweets from the hackers, including an altered image of Norris holding a piece of paper marked with the ticker DEAN and its debut date, even though the post advertising the token has since been removed.
In one of the hackers’ X posts, they included a video of Norris stating, “Hey, it’s me, Dean, and on January 25, I’m declaring it’s real,” giving the impression that he was confirming the coin’s validity.
Reddit users have conjectured that the video might have been a sponsored video taken out of context or a deepfake produced by artificial intelligence. Norris is active on Cameo, a website where fans may pay famous people to make personalized movies.
Blockchain data tracker DexScreener reports that DEAN’s market capitalization jumped to over $8.43 million on January 25 but has since fallen to less than $60,000. The price of the memecoin has likewise dropped by more than 96%.
In a subsequent statement, Norris stated that he hardly ever uses X and does not have a Telegram account. “Until I started receiving texts from friends stating that it was out there, I was unaware I had been hacked.”
This hack is the second instance in which a cryptocurrency scheme has been promoted by hacking Norris’s account.
Memecoin Frenzy Since $TRUMP Launch
ZachXBT, an onchain detective, said in November that a project linked to a former professional Fortnite player was linked to several account takeovers, including those of McDonald’s, Usher, and Dean Norris.
It follows President Donald Trump‘s unexpected January 18 memecoin launch, which caused a trading frenzy and, just hours later, drove the memecoin’s market valuation to almost $9 billion.
