Fans of the Vancouver Canucks may have been bewildered, or delighted, when the official X account for the NHL team announced the launch of a memecoin Monday afternoon—but the organization was quick to confirm that the social media page had been hacked. “Please disregard any recent posts until further notice,” a statement from Canucks Sports and Entertainment reads. Users would have been right to be skeptical when a post surfaced just after 2 p.m. advertising a pre-sale for the cryptocurrency token $Canucks on the Solana blockchain, which is the same platform U.S. President Donald Trump used to launch his own—real—coin. “The first NHL team to ever do this,” the post read. “Utility? Lots of. Watch for the upcoming posts!” Within minutes, the post was deleted, and a similar one went up soon after only to quickly disappear as well. What came next on the @Canucks account was a deep-fake video of X owner Elon Musk announcing a $20 million “crypto giveaway.” Canucks communications director Craig MacEwen confirmed to CTV News the account was “compromised,” and said the team is working with the social media platform and the NHL to “resolve the issue as quickly as possible.”
