Metallica’s X account apparently hacked to promote crypto token

The official X account for heavy metal band Metallica appears to have been hacked, with the exploiters using the breach to promote a Solana token with the ticker METAL.

The token was first announced on the official Metallica X account in a June 26 post, which claimed the token — launched on the Solana-based token deployer pump.fun — was in partnership with Ticketmaster. 

Ticketmaster has not made any public or announcement concerning the legitimacy of the partnership at the time of publication.  

A pinned post promoting the token points to the band’s official website, which has no information about the token. 

Posts from Metallica’s account claimed the token had also been launched in collaboration with the fintech firm MoonPay. It has not made any public mention of the token and did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of U.S. business hours.

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.