Real Madrid star Kylian Mbappe has a dedicated team carefully managing his image and branded social media presence, so alarm bells must have been ringing at full volume when his Twitter/X account was hacked in the early hours of Wednesday night.
Mbappé’s account was taken over by currently unknown hackers and, according to MD, was used for various purposes for 20 minutes, part of which was to promote a cryptocurrency called $MBAPPE, whose value reportedly skyrocketed briefly before crashing again.
The account was also used to slander Lionel Messi, tweeting things like “Manchester is Red” and “They lied. Go to Manchester United. You’ll get there for free in 2028.” Additionally, posts expressed anti-Semitic sentiments, such as “The Jews own football,” and said things like “Kill Israel” and “Liberate Palestine,” alluding to the hacker’s football and political preferences.
The culmination of Mbappé’s career
The post was deleted 20 minutes later. According to CoinPedia, the cryptocurrency’s value rose to tens of millions of dollars, with one user making the equivalent of $200,000 (€185,000) from $286 (€258). $MBAPPE then dropped back to zero in less than an hour.