Metallica’s official X account was presumably hacked to promote now-collapsed token launched via pump.fun

The official X account of Metallica — one of the most famous metal bands of all time — was presumably hacked by an unknown entity to promote a Solana token with the ticker METAL in what many presume to have been a hack.

The post was made on June 16 and claimed the token — which was launched using Solana token deployer pump.fun — was made in partnership with Ticketmaster, though the ticket sales and distribution company had made no announcement.

All posts mentioning the token have been deleted.

Metallica’s X account has since reposted from MoonPay President Keith A. Grossman urging readers to “be careful” and noting that “MoonPay does NOT support $METAL on Solana” — suggesting the band itself did not launch the token.

MoonPay also posted a safety alert from its official account. "If someone is offering you a $METAL token, they are not the master of puppets — they're the master of scams," it wrote, referencing the title of the famous Metallica album Master of Puppets.

The price of the METAL token pumped shortly after the posts were made before dumping roughly 90% to a market capitalization of approximately $43,000, according to Dexscreener.

Exactly how or why the posts were made remains unclear. Ticketmaster did not immediately respond to The Block’s request for comment, and Metallica could not be reached for comment by the time of publication.