Crypto Night Scandal: Roaring Kitty Hacked

Last night (May 11–12, 2026) the account of legendary streamer Keith Gill, better known as Roaring Kitty (@TheRoaringKitty), was hijacked. The same Roaring Kitty who blew up Wall Street and triggered the 2021 GameStop short squeeze is once again in the spotlight, this time in crypto.

Hackers posted the contract address of a new Solana memecoin called Red Kitten Crew ($RKC) on Pump.fun. The token instantly mooned: within minutes its market cap hit $11–12 million (some trackers showed an even higher peak). Crypto degens piled in because “Roaring Kitty himself is shilling it.” The twist? Keith has randomly popped back into the spotlight several times before, so many initially thought this was just another one of his mysterious “crypto trolling” posts.

But it turned out to be a classic hack + rug pull.

What Happened On-Chain

The hacker (or group) was prepared: using 10 different wallets, they spent just 20 SOL ($1,950–2,000) to buy 395.18 million $RKC, that’s 39.52% of the entire supply. Once the fake Roaring Kitty post went viral, the token pumped hard and the “dev” dumped almost everything for 5,071 SOL (~$495K–611K), plus another 1,209 SOL (~$118K) in creator fees. Total profit: over $600K in a few hours.

After the dump, the hackers deleted all tweets and the real Roaring Kitty account went silent. The token crashed 90% and is now trading at a $1–2 million market cap. Some holders are already trying to organize a CTO (community takeover), but trust is shattered.

Official Statement

Keith Gill (or his team) later confirmed: the account was hacked. He did not create, promote, or authorize any memecoin. The warning post appeared only after the damage was done.

Why It Worked So Well?

• Roaring Kitty’s retail cult following is still massive.
• Everyone remembered his surprise posts in 2024–2025 and didn’t question it.
• The classic “influencer + Pump.fun + instant rug” playbook still prints in 2026.

Lesson for crypto degens: If even the GME legend can be turned into a rug-pull weapon, double-check everything. DYOR, skip the FOMO, and never trust a post without 2FA confirmation.

Current $RKC contract (for the curious): 7HgfXftRBBqsYtAEYcqjGLQrNJLL6Tww9ek4rE3Apump. After this kind of rug, it’s pure lottery territory.