Someone hacked Mahathir's X (formerly Twitter) account to hawk a memecoin

Looking for a new investment vehicle?

Man, does former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad have a deal for you!

(He doesn’t, it's fake.)

Hax0red

It turns out that on Feb. 5, Mahathir’s X (formerly Twitter) account was apparently hacked.

As is the style nowadays, said hacked social media account was put to work promoting a cryptocurrency.

In this case, it was a Solana token, “$Malaysia”.

The tweet touted the coin as “Malaysia’s official cryptocurrency”, and tried to ape the former leader’s style by saying that the coin was a “significant milestone” in “showcasing” the strength of Malaysia.

Malaysia does not have an official cryptocurrency.

It even included a link to where the coin could be bought, along with a picture of the Malaysian flag.

But as with all get-rich schemes, this too was an empty promise and emptier than usual.

Free Malaysia Today and MalaysiaKini reached out to the former PM’s office, with an aide confirming that the account had been “hacked” and that the team was working on recovering the account.

The hacked post was published at 8:15 pm on Feb. 5 and had been taken down by the time FMT published their article, over an hour later at 9:37 pm.

Some X users assumed that the coin was part of a "pump and dump" scheme, and the coin enjoyed a spike in value that made it look like the Merdeka 118, Malaysia's tallest building.

Mahathir posted at 9:57 pm, confirming that his X account had been hacked.

H4x0r3d again

This is not the first time that an official Malaysian account has been hacked to promote cryptocurrency.

The Rakyat Post reported in September 2024 that several X accounts had been hacked, including those of official Malaysian government bodies, such as the Employees Provident Fund and the Election Commission.

On that occasion, it was also a Solana coin that was being promoted, but the hackers openly admitted that they were not affiliated with the account owners, saying brazenly that “THIS IS A HACKED ACCOUNT” and even calling the coin “$Hacked”.

Mahathir for his part has previously denied that he uses any cryptocurrency.

In 2021, Mahathir issued a statement that he would not encourage the use of cryptocurrency, referencing previous attempts to falsely claim that he was endorsing crypto coins.

“I have never and will not be involved in any get rich quick scheme”, he was quoted by the Malay Mail as saying.

Instead, he only used fiat currency or physical money.

As good as gold

Followers of Mahathir’s policy would know that cryptocurrency is an unlikely avenue for the former PM.

Rather than embracing new forms of money, Mahathir once tried to propose a reversion to older forms of money.

In 2019, he proposed that East Asian countries adopt a new regional currency, one that was not tied to the U.S. dollar, but instead tied to a gold standard, a practice that has not been common since the middle of the 20th century.

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Top image via Mahathir Mohamad/X & Mahathir Mohamad/Facebook