Two posts from Keith Gill's verified X account—best known as Roaring Kitty—briefly ignited a Solana-based meme coin mania on May 11 before being deleted within an hour. The now-removed content included the Pump.fun contract address for Red Kitten Crew (RKC) and a short cartoon clip, triggering a speculative rush that pushed the token’s market capitalization to nearly $12 million in under 20 minutes.
When the posts disappeared, the price collapsed just as fast. Panic selling erased approximately $10 million in value, with on-chain data showing over $10.5 million in sell volume during the meltdown. At the center of the controversy, blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain reported that the developer behind RKC used 10 wallets to accumulate 395.18 million tokens—39.52% of the total supply—for just 20 SOL (around $1,950). Those wallets later dumped the entire position for about 5,071 SOL ($495,000), while the creator collected another 1,209 SOL ($118,000) in Pump.fun fees. Combined, the developer-linked wallets realized roughly $611,000 in proceeds.
The episode revived concerns over celebrity account compromises. Some community members, including crypto commentator StarPlatinum, noted parallels to past hacks such as the one targeting Pepe creator Matt Furie, where fake meme coins were promoted before crashing. Gill has not issued a statement confirming or denying whether his account was hacked. Meanwhile, retail traders suffered heavy losses—one spent $250,000 on RKC only to sell for $62,200, locking in a $188,600 loss within an hour.
The dramatic event highlights persistent risks in meme coin markets, drawing attention to wallet concentration and potential insider manipulation. It also follows broader scrutiny: New York lawmakers previously proposed Bill A06515, which would criminalize fraud like undisclosed token ownership and rug pulls, with penalties of up to $5 million and 20-year prison sentences.
