- Hackers took over Migos’ Instagram on May 27, posting Raj Gokal’s personal documents after he allegedly refused to pay a 40 BTC ransom.
- The breach leaked IDs and passport pages, mocked Gokal’s Solana holdings, and promoted a memecoin scam; posts stayed up for 90 minutes.
- Gokal warned of attempted email takeovers before the hack. At least he took it with humour.
Hackers hijacked the official Instagram account of rap group Migos on May 27 to publish a series of leaked documents containing personal information tied to Solana co-founder Raj Gokal—an apparent retaliation after Gokal refused to pay a 40 BTC ransom.
Photos posted during the breach included images of government IDs and passport pages supposedly tied to Gokal and another individual named “Arvind.” The hackers captioned the posts with threats, including: “you should’ve paid the 40 btc,” suggesting a US$2.7 million ransom demand that went unanswered.
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The bio was temporarily changed to shill a memecoin scam, while Telegram links and audio clips were also posted. At least one post mocked the victims’ Solana holdings.
Investor and co-founder of The Rollup, Andy, reported that the images remained live for about 90 minutes before being deleted. ZachXBT confirmed that the attackers exploited vulnerabilities in Gokal’s email setup rather than leveraging any data leaked in Coinbase’s recent breach, despite public speculation.
That separate incident, disclosed by Coinbase on May 15, involved bribed support agents and unauthorised access to internal systems. According to an SEC filing, remediation and reimbursements from the breach are expected to cost the exchange north of US$400M (AU$620M).
Always Dress Up Smart
Neither Gokal nor the Solana Foundation has publicly commented. Gokal had previously posted a warning on May 20 via X, saying attackers had been “trying to take control” of his email and social accounts. He advised followers to treat any unusual activity with caution.
Following the Instagram attack, Gokal offered no formal statement beyond a pointed post on X:
Always remember to dress up smart for your KYC photos. You never know what kind of reach they might get on social media.
Raj Gokal, Solana co-founderMigos’ Instagram account has since returned to normal operation.
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