Playboi Carti X Account Pushed CARTI Meme Coin That Rugged Within Hours
A Pump.fun link surfaced on Playboi Carti's long-dormant X profile late Sunday, October 25, and a CARTI meme coin tied to the account ran to roughly $1.2 million in market value before collapsing within hours, according to Bitcoin.com News.
The episode matters because the rapper's account, which shows 3.6 million followers, had produced no genuine post since early 2025, and the sudden activity fits a pattern in which hijacked celebrity accounts are used to promote tokens that are then dumped on buyers, Bitcoin.com News reported.
Bio Edit Flagged the CARTI Meme Coin
Memecoin tracker Crypto Gorilla first noticed that Carti's X bio had been updated to tag @pumpfun, with no wallet linked and no contract address posted, according to Bitcoin.com News. The bio began tagging Pump.fun on October 25.
The account's long silence made the edit stand out as suspicious. A screenshot circulated in the same thread captured a token called "carti," launched under a playboicarti handle, showing a gain of 18,535% in its opening hour and a market value close to $714,600, Bitcoin.com News reported.
Traders piled in without waiting for any confirmation from the artist. Crypto Gorilla's daily recap later concluded that Carti had been hacked, noting that the CARTI meme coin reached about $1.2 million in market value before the rug pull, according to Bitcoin.com News.
Trading Volume and the Collapse
Dexscreener data for the busiest CARTI trading pair on Solana put 24-hour volume at roughly $4.09 million, even as the token's price traded about 64% below where it had been over that same period, Bitcoin.com News reported. The bulk of that activity was concentrated in the opening hours of trading.
By Monday morning in Asia, the token's market value had shrunk to a small fraction of its peak, according to Bitcoin.com News. The speed of the rise and fall matched the pattern of a classic pump-and-dump executed through a compromised account, with early buyers left holding tokens worth far less than what they paid.
Copycat Tokens Spread Across Three Chains
The original token was only the start. A couple of hours later, over 20 additional CARTI tokens had been launched across Solana, Robinhood Chain and Arc, according to Bitcoin.com News. Most carried the same name and image, and most were worth only a few thousand dollars by Monday morning.
This kind of imitation has become routine whenever a celebrity-linked token appears, because deployers are aware that search interest surges in the hours after a launch, Bitcoin.com News reported. They saturate launchpads with lookalike contracts and count on buyers picking up the wrong one.
The odds facing buyers are steep. Research from Zeru showed that out of 3,374 tracked launches, just 34 graduated organically, a success rate of about 1%, while the top 10 deployers on Pump.fun have taken in more than $95.1 million, according to Bitcoin.com News.
A Familiar Pattern of Account Takeovers
Carti is not the first big name pulled into this pattern this year. Back in July, the account belonging to Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev was taken over and used to promote a bogus token called "Vladhood," a post that racked up over 175,000 views in less than 20 minutes before users flagged it, Bitcoin.com News reported.
The episode also lands close on the heels of the Kimchi affair, covered by Bitcoin.com News the previous week, in which a well-known pseudonymous trader went from Pump.fun star to rug pull suspect within 48 hours.
None of that proves who controlled Carti's account on Sunday, Bitcoin.com News noted. As of the time of writing, neither the rapper nor anyone on his team had issued a statement, and there is no confirmed connection between him and the CARTI meme coin.
Risk Appetite in a Bruised Market
Speculative corners of the crypto market were already under pressure heading into the weekend. Bitcoin had dipped under $80,000, pulling trading volume in riskier tokens down with it, according to Bitcoin.com News.
A celebrity name still found buyers anyway, which Bitcoin.com News said says plenty about where risk appetite sits right now. The CARTI meme coin episode shows that even in a weaker market, a single post from a hijacked account with millions of followers can pull in millions of dollars of volume within hours.
For now, the only confirmed facts are the on-chain numbers and the bio edit. Whether the account was compromised, and who profited from the brief run, remains unestablished, according to Bitcoin.com News.
Conclusion
A Pump.fun link on Playboi Carti's dormant X account sent a CARTI token to roughly $1.2 million in market value before it collapsed within hours, and more than 20 copycat tokens spread across Solana, Robinhood Chain and Arc. As of the time of writing, neither the rapper nor his team had commented publicly, and there is no verified connection between him and the token. The next concrete development to watch for is any statement from Carti's camp addressing whether the account was compromised.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happened to Playboi Carti's X account on October 25?
A Pump.fun link appeared on the rapper's dormant X profile late Sunday, and his bio was updated to tag @pumpfun with no wallet or contract address posted. A CARTI token tied to the account ran to roughly $1.2 million in market value before collapsing within hours, according to Bitcoin.com News.
How high did the CARTI token go before it was rugged?
The token hit about $1.2 million in market value before being rugged, according to a daily recap by memecoin tracker Crypto Gorilla cited by Bitcoin.com News. An earlier screenshot shared in the same thread showed the token gaining 18,535% during its opening hour, with a market value of roughly $714,600 at that point.
How much trading volume did the CARTI token see on Solana?
Dexscreener data cited by Bitcoin.com News put 24-hour volume on the busiest CARTI pair on Solana at roughly $4.09 million, while the token's price traded about 64% lower over that same window. Most of that activity was concentrated in the first few hours of trading.
Did Playboi Carti or his team confirm the token launch?
No. As of the time of writing, neither the rapper nor his team had issued any statement, and the token has no verified connection to him, according to Bitcoin.com News. The account had been quiet since early 2025 despite showing 3.6 million followers.
How many copycat CARTI tokens were created after the launch?
Within a couple of hours, more than 20 fresh CARTI tokens had been created and spread across Solana, Robinhood Chain and Arc, according to Bitcoin.com News. Most carried the same name and image and were worth only a few thousand dollars by Monday morning.