Puppeteered by a hacker or hackers of unknown origin, one of Pokemon's official social media accounts was briefly trying to get fans to invest in a crypto memecoin - on top of the Krispy Kreme donuts and endless merch the account usually peddles, that is.
As spotted by NintendoEverything, Pokemon's Twitter (X) account made quite a strange post last night. "Celebrate 30 years of Pokemon in a whole new way," the now-deleted tweet said alongside a contract address. "Introducing $POKEMON, the official Pokemon memecoin."
Of course, The Pokemon Company quickly regained control of its internet airwaves after around half an hour of the crypto ad going live, just in time for the 2026 Pokemon World Championships that kick off today.
The Pokemon stewards explained what went on in a statement to the outlet: "The @Pokemon handle on X was temporarily compromised earlier for ~30 minutes. We're aware that our X account was accessed without authorization and used to publish posts promoting a cryptocurrency.
Those posts were not created or approved by Pokemon and have been removed. We have secured the account and are investigating the incident. We're sorry for the confusion and appreciate your patience."
There's no word on who was behind the hacks or how exactly the ordeal happened, but here's hoping any kids ravenous for more Pokemon stuff weren't blindsided by the scheme.
If I had a memecoin for every hacker who used a massive gaming franchise to push their crypto nonsense this month alone, I'd have two good-for-nothing digital tokens, funnily enough. Earlier this month, a leaker known online as CyberLeek leaked tons of in-development footage from GTA 6 online, using the clips as a backdoor to promote and sell their own memecoin, though the scheme seems to be over now. Pokemon's run-in with a crypto schemer was thankfully much less dramatic.
