Kimchi’s X account was allegedly hacked on October 22, 2026, two days after Pump.fun signed him. The compromised post showed an AI-generated street poster with a QR code that led to a new coin called Project Kimchi on Pump.fun. Alon, the Pump.fun co-founder, reposted it. The token hit a $15.2 million market cap within minutes, the post vanished after roughly 30 minutes, Alon un-retweeted, and the coin collapsed 98%. Here is what happened, what is verified, and why Kimchi is now scrubbing Pump.fun from his profile.
Yesterday I published my Who is Kimchi profile and called the whole signing a marketing campaign. I did not expect the campaign to blow up this fast.
What Happened in 30 Minutes
The post went up early in the afternoon, US time. It was a photo of a Manhattan sidewalk with a pasted poster: “project kimchi, same internet, different outcome,” a Pump.fun pill logo, a QR code and App Store badges. The image looked like a real guerrilla ad campaign. Most traders assumed it was the next phase of the Pump.fun deal.
Scanning the QR code opened a fresh Pump.fun token. Project Kimchi, ticker kimchi, contract ending in “pump,” created about an hour before I grabbed the chart. The dev wallet showed 0.0%, so there was no visible creator bag to track.
Then Alon reposted it from his personal account. That changed everything. Traders saw the founder of Pump.fun amplifying a Kimchi post two days after announcing him as a creative partner. The coin went from nothing to a $10 million cap in seconds and printed a $15.2 million all-time high shortly after.
Around the 30 minute mark the post was deleted. Alon un-retweeted. The QR code, according to several traders who re-scanned it, no longer pointed at the token. By the time I took the screenshot the cap sat at $284k, down more than 98% from the top, on $8.66 million of 24-hour volume.
Was Kimchi Actually Hacked?
Nobody knows yet. The “hacked” framing came from Crypto Twitter, not from Kimchi or Pump.fun. At the time of writing neither has posted a statement. Several accounts are calling it a hack. Just as many are calling it a stunt.
Two things make the hack story plausible. First, the post was removed quickly, which is what you do when you regain control of an account. Second, the token was pulled from the QR link, which suggests someone wanted to end the trade fast.
Two things cut against it. The poster was professionally designed, used Pump.fun branding correctly, and matched the app’s current ad style. That is not a typical hijacker’s work. More importantly, Kimchi’s reaction afterwards was not “I got hacked, sorry.” Instead, he removed @pumpfun from his X bio and deleted his earlier Pump.fun posts, including the YouTube vlog about joining. Someone who was simply hacked does not usually erase the partnership.
I am not calling it either way. What I can say is that the people who lost money do not care which version is true.
Alon Retweeted a Rug
This is the part that matters. Kimchi getting hacked, if that is what happened, is an account security story. The founder and CEO of Pump.fun reposting an unverified coin link to hundreds of thousands of followers is a different story.
The repost is what sent the token to eight figures. Without it, a random QR code coin would have done a few hundred thousand at best. With it, retail piled in at $5 million, $10 million and $15 million caps because the platform’s own founder appeared to endorse it. Those buyers are the holders now sitting at a $284k cap.
The angriest replies on the timeline all say the same thing. A founder with that much reach has a duty to confirm a post with his partner before engaging. Calls for Pump.fun to refund buyers started within the hour. I would not hold my breath on that. Still, the reputational hit is real, and it lands squarely on the “trust us with retail” message Pump.fun has been pushing all week.
For context, this is the second Kimchi coin in three days. The first one, Aura Final Boss, ran past $40 million on signing day, with Kimchi holding 75% of supply against a thin pool. Traders estimate that millions were extracted from that one too. Two Kimchi tokens, two vertical charts, two crowds holding the bag. Whether today’s version counts as a rug or a hack is exactly the distinction I draw in our crypto rug pull guide: a rug is an inside job, a hack comes from outside, and teams sometimes call their own exit a hack to buy time.
Bubblemaps: Kimchi Made $6M on TRUMP, Not $40M
The timing of the next story could not have been worse for him. On the same day, Bubblemaps published a wallet trace of Kimchi’s actual TRUMP profits. The $40 million number has floated around since January 2025 without a single receipt. Kimchi never confirmed it. He never denied it either, and launchpads and KOLs kept repeating it.
Bubblemaps started from his public giveaway wallet and the original KIMCHI token, then mapped a cluster of previously unidentified wallets, including one starting with ECCKBD. The traced profit on TRUMP came to roughly $6 million.
That is still a huge trade. It is not “one Kimchi.” Bubblemaps noted the trace only shows part of the cluster, and there could be another address with more profit. Their view, which I share, is that if a bigger wallet existed he would have shown it by now.
In my profile yesterday I wrote that I did not believe the $40 million figure because posting a receipt takes thirty seconds. On-chain data now backs that up. The legend that got him the Pump.fun deal was roughly seven times larger than reality.
What This Means for Pump.fun
Pump.fun signed Kimchi to be the face of retail onboarding. In 48 hours the face has produced two rugs, a possible hack, and a public wallet trace that shrinks his origin story. He has now removed the platform from his bio.
My read is that the partnership is over, or at least on ice, whether anyone announces it or not. Pump.fun is in a user war with FOMO, which I covered in my FOMO app review. The Kimchi signing was supposed to win TikTok. Instead it handed every competitor a clip of the Pump.fun founder retweeting a coin that went to zero in half an hour.
The broader lesson is older than Kimchi. A QR code in a photo is not a verified contract. A repost from a founder is not an endorsement, even when it looks like one. Likewise, a trader with a Porsche is not a trader with receipts. If you want to trade memes without relying on timeline hype, I ranked every tool I use in my best places to trade meme coins guide.
Keep This Content Free
Despite today’s mess, Pump.fun still pays both sides of its referral program, and we covered the terms in our Pump.fun referral rewards listing. If you trade on the app, sign up through our Pump.fun link and enter the code LowlyTundraIce when prompted. The code unlocks up to $50 in matching rewards, roughly 10% lower app platform fees and referral commissions with a temporary 4x boost, subject to eligibility. Prefer a regular exchange? Opening an account on OKX or Bybit through our links supports the site at no cost to you.
Final Words
Never a boring day in the trenches. A poster that may or may not be fake, a coin that may or may not have been planted, a founder repost that absolutely happened, and a chart that absolutely went to zero. Somewhere in there, hundreds of traders lost real money on a token that lived for half an hour.
Kimchi is scrubbing Pump.fun from his profile. Bubblemaps has cut his legend down to size. Alon has deleted a repost and said nothing. Until one of them explains what happened, treat every Kimchi coin as a trap and every founder retweet as marketing. That approach would have saved everyone money this week.
FAQ
Was Kimchi’s X account hacked?
Allegedly. On October 22, 2026, his account posted an AI image with a QR code leading to a new Project Kimchi token on Pump.fun. The post was deleted after about 30 minutes. Neither Kimchi nor Pump.fun has confirmed a hack, and some traders believe it was a stunt.
Did Alon retweet the Kimchi scam coin?
Yes. Pump.fun co-founder Alon reposted the QR code post, which sent the token past $10 million in seconds. He un-retweeted it after the original post was deleted.
How high did Project Kimchi go?
The coin hit an all-time high market cap of $15.2 million within minutes, then fell to around $284k, a drop of more than 98%, on roughly $8.66 million of 24-hour volume.
Did Kimchi really make $40 million on TRUMP?
No. Bubblemaps traced his wallet cluster and put his actual TRUMP profit at about $6 million. The $40 million figure was never verified, and Kimchi neither confirmed nor denied it.
Is Kimchi still partnered with Pump.fun?
Unclear. After the post was deleted, Kimchi removed @pumpfun from his X bio and deleted his earlier Pump.fun posts and YouTube vlog. Neither side has announced a change to the deal.
Will Pump.fun refund buyers of Project Kimchi?
There is no refund announcement. Traders are publicly asking Alon to compensate buyers because his repost drove the pump, but Pump.fun has not responded.
