Roaring Kitty’s Deleted X Post Triggers 90% Crash in RKC Meme Coin

There is speculation that the account activity may not have come from Roaring Kitty himself, as the account had been quiet for 16 months.

Roaring Kitty’s deleted post on X triggered a crash in the meme coin RKC, wiping out 90% of its value within hours.

Traders who bought into the hype lost hundreds of thousands of dollars, while the coin’s developer reportedly cashed out over $600,000 before it collapsed.

RKC Dev Profited Over $600K from Token

Keith Gill’s verified X account, popularly known by his 1.6 million followers as Roaring Kitty, ended a 16-month silence on May 11 with a post that sent traders into a frenzy. At around 21:13 GMT, the account shared a Solana Pump.fun contract address for a newly launched meme coin called Red Kitten Crew (RKC), alongside a short cartoon clip.

Minutes later, the account shared a second post featuring an image captioned “red bandit crew 4 life,” which was later deleted. The sudden activity started a rush of speculative trading that briefly sent RKC soaring before the deletions triggered panic selling, causing the token to crash 90% and wiping millions from its market cap.

Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain later reported that the meme coin’s developer had already cashed out 6,260 SOL, worth around $611,000, before the posts were removed. According to them, the individual used 20 SOL worth roughly $1,950 across 10 wallets to acquire 395.18 million RKC tokens, representing 39.52% of the total supply, before selling the entire stash for $495,000.

Lookonchain also revealed that the developer earned an additional 1,209 SOL, worth approximately $118,000, through creator fees.

Roaring Kitty Meme Coin Posts Cause Hack Speculation

On-chain analysts are saying that the incident followed a pattern they’ve seen many times in crypto, where influencers create hype, developers cash out, and retail traders are left with losses. Others also questioned the authenticity of the posts, noting Keith Gill has built his online presence around GameStop commentary and has never publicly promoted meme coins before, leading to speculation that the account may have been hacked.

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There’s been a trend of high-profile X accounts being compromised to promote meme coins, with similar breaches in the past targeting major public figures and companies such as Michael Saylor and Kylian Mbappé. The former’s account was used to push a fake Bitcoin giveaway, while the latter’s promoted a Solana meme coin scam, with both incidents resulting in a spike in trading volumes before a collapse.

At the same time, Pump.fun has also been involved in controversy, with researchers claiming that a large percentage of tokens launched on the platform display characteristics commonly associated with scams or wash trading. The Solana-based meme coin maker has also been targeted by two class-action lawsuits in the past, with both accusing it of violating U.S. securities laws by facilitating the launch of unregistered tokens and allegedly collecting up to $500 million in related fees.