Retired wrestling legend Hulk Hogan is denying any involvement in promoting the Solana memecoin HULKAMANIA (HULK) on social media. The multiple now-deleted posts were allegedly not from Hogan, whose real name is Terry Gene Bollea, as he made clear in a June 5 Instagram post. Despite the removal of all the posts, cached data from Google Search shows that Hogan’s account did indeed share several posts promoting the Solana-based token HULK.
One of the cached posts claimed that “$HULK” was unbeatable, even by your own mother, possibly in reference to rapper Iggy Azalea’s Mother Iggy (MOTHER) memecoin. Other posts included links to the token on DEX Screener. However, further posts shared by Mashable reporter Matt Binder, which could not be independently verified by Cointelegraph, suggested that a video of Hogan supposedly related to the token launch was actually from December, promoting a karaoke night.
HULK saw a peak market capitalization of $18.8 million just over an hour and a half after its launch on June 6 at 7:40 pm UTC. However, it quickly plummeted to a market cap of $2 million 20 minutes later, where it has since remained, as reported by DEX Screener.
According to crypto analytics firm Bubblemaps, data indicates that five wallets had purchased 15% of the HULK supply on the meme token launch platform pump.fun before Hogan’s account shared the token. These wallets reportedly sold $200,000 worth of $1.5 million in unrealized gains by around June 6, 8:00 pm UTC.
It remains unclear whether Hogan’s account was hacked and, if so, how it occurred. Hogan’s team has not responded to requests for comment on the matter.
This alleged hack coincides with a trend of B-list celebrities launching their own crypto tokens. Reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner, along with rappers Iggy Azalea and Rich the Kid, have all recently launched and endorsed Solana-based tokens. However, all of their tokens, except for Azalea’s MOTHER, have experienced significant drops of over 60%. MOTHER, on the other hand, has seen an all-time high as the rapper gains support for her commitment to improving the token’s standing.