RKC incident
 Image: original illustration, memecoin.wiki | |
| date | May 11, 2026 |
|---|---|
| blockchain | Solana |
| platform | pump.fun |
| token | RKC (Red Kitten Crew) |
| amount extracted | about 600,000 to 730,000 dollars (per reporting) |
A May 2026 episode in which Keith Gill's dormant Roaring Kitty X account posted a Solana meme coin that spiked to about 12 million dollars in minutes and collapsed, with onchain investigators tying the launch to a serial account hacking crew.
The RKC incident was a May 2026 episode in which the verified X account of Keith Gill, the GameStop trader known as Roaring Kitty, posted a Solana meme coin called Red Kitten Crew (RKC) after 16 months of silence. The token spiked to a market capitalization of about 12 million dollars within roughly 20 minutes, collapsed when the posts were deleted, and was subsequently described by multiple outlets as a rug pull executed through a hacked account.
The launch
At about 9:13 PM GMT on May 11, 2026, the Roaring Kitty account posted a contract address for RKC, a pump.fun token, alongside a short cartoon clip of a cat in a red bandana. Because the account had been dormant since early 2025, the post initially read as a genuine return, and BeInCrypto noted RKC rallying as traders debated whether Gill was back. GameStop stock briefly rose about 13 percent on the frenzy before erasing the gain. Both posts were deleted within about 30 minutes, and the token crashed from its peak to under 2 million dollars. Gill made no public statement about the episode in the weeks of coverage that followed.
The rug
Onchain analysis reported by Invezz and CryptoRank found that minutes before the post went live, ten fresh wallets funded from a single source bought a combined 395 million RKC, nearly 40 percent of supply, for about 1,950 dollars. As the pump peaked the cluster sold for roughly 5,071 SOL, and the deployer collected about 1,209 SOL more in creator fees, a total realized haul reported between about 611,000 and 729,000 dollars. One retail trader was reported to have lost about 188,600 dollars in the dump. The pre positioned buying marked the launch as a coordinated bundle rather than an opportunistic snipe.
The investigation
Reporting by The Crypto Times connected the hack to two similar compromises: Pepe creator Matt Furie's account on April 14, 2026, used to launch a fraudulent token on BNB Chain, and the WinRAR account on May 4, 2026. Onchain investigator Specter (@SpecterAnalyst) attributed all three to a single threat group, mapping fund flows across Solana, BNB Chain, Ethereum, Tron, and Hyperliquid, identifying over 14 million dollars in linked wallets from bundled launches, and tying the group to a 2024 phishing theft of about 2.45 million dollars in wstETH. In the twist that closed the story, Specter alleged that the developer of a launch platform, posting as aliasbacardi, "either knows or is part of the threat group." The allegation was Specter's conclusion and was not independently adjudicated.
Aftermath
RKC kept trading as a curiosity after the crash, printing an all time high price on May 12, 2026 that implied roughly 10 million dollars, then fading; as of mid August 2026 trackers list it near 1 to 2 million dollars. The incident is cited with the pump fun x account hack wave as evidence that by 2026, hijacked celebrity accounts had become a professionalized meme coin supply chain.
References
- crypto.news, Roaring Kitty X account hacked for RKC coin dump: https://crypto.news/roaring-kitty-x-account-hacked-for-rkc-coin-dump/
- Invezz, Roaring Kitty linked RKC rug pull sees developer wallets cash out over 600K: https://invezz.com/news/2026/05/12/roaring-kitty-linked-rkc-rug-pull-sees-developer-wallets-cash-out-over-600k/
- The Crypto Times, Are Roaring Kitty, Matt Furie, and WinRAR X account hacks connected: https://www.cryptotimes.io/2026/05/16/are-roaring-kitty-matt-furie-and-winrar-x-account-hacks-connected/
- KuCoin Blog, Roaring Kitty account hack explored, the truth behind RKC 150x surge and collapse: https://www.kucoin.com/blog/en-roaring-kitty-account-hack-explored-the-truth-behind-rkc-150x-surge-and-collapse
- BeInCrypto, RKC price rallies 25% as Roaring Kitty returns after 16 months: https://beincrypto.com/roaring-kitty-x-account-hacked-pumpfun/
- CoinGecko, Red Kitten Crew: https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/red-kitten-crew
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