Roaring Kitty hack: $2.8M extracted via RKC Pump.fun Solana dump
A Roaring Kitty hack was reported on May 11, when Keith Gill’s verified X account appeared to be compromised. The attackers used the profile to promote a Solana meme coin, Red Kitten Crew (RKC), via Pump.fun, triggering a fast rally.
On-chain tracking shows the compromised post pushed RKC market cap briefly to about $11–$12 million within roughly 20 minutes, then it collapsed after the messages were deleted within an hour. An estimated 80+ wallets extracted $2,864,364 during the spike.
Lookonchain data indicates the “developer” spent about 20 SOL (~$1,950) across 10 wallets to acquire 395.18 million RKC tokens (39.52% of total supply). The wallets then sold the position for roughly 5,071 SOL (~$495,000). The developer also collected about 1,209 SOL (~$118,000) in Pump.fun creator fees.
This Roaring Kitty hack follows a recurring pattern seen in prior Solana social-shilling incidents on X: hijacked accounts have previously promoted fake or short-lived tokens. No confirmed response from Keith Gill or his representatives was cited at the time of reporting, and some community speculation about other individuals remains unverified.
Bearish
The immediate trading implication is bearish: the Roaring Kitty hack shows how quickly social-account hijacks on X can trigger a meme-coin liquidity grab and then a sharp unwind. When posts are deleted within an hour and price collapses after a brief $11–$12M market-cap spike, traders typically experience increased volatility, slippage, and higher risk premiums for newly shilled tokens.
In the short term, this can depress confidence in Pump.fun-launched Solana meme coins and lead to faster “sell-the-news” reactions. Traders may also reduce exposure to tokens promoted via influencer accounts until authenticity checks clear. A similar pattern has played out in prior hijack-and-dump episodes on Solana-linked markets: after the first wave of extraction, volume often shifts to safer, established liquidity rather than newly minted hype.
In the longer term, the market effect is likely neutral-to-bearish but more structural: repeated Roaring Kitty hack-type incidents tend to intensify due-diligence behavior (contract verification, wallet tracking) and may accelerate platform-level security and monitoring improvements. Still, until mitigations are proven effective, meme-coin sectors can remain prone to abrupt drawdowns, keeping sentiment subdued.