Highlights
- A reply of “💯” from Elon Musk to a since-suspected-hacked Shivon Zilis account sent the meme coin SLINK from zero to tens of millions in market cap within minutes.
- On-chain data from Arkham shows trader Aurelius0121 bought roughly $250,000 of SLINK just before the token collapsed, wiping out the position entirely.
- Across four identified wallets, traders lost a combined $807,000 as SLINK's market capitalization cratered more than 97% from its peak.
- Neither Musk nor Zilis had publicly clarified the incident as of this writing, leaving the hacked-versus-genuine question unresolved.
On September 4, 2026, a since-suspected-hacked post from Neuralink co-founder Shivon Zilis promoting a token called SLINK drew a one-word reply from Elon Musk — “💯” — and set off one of the year's fastest meme coin pump-and-dumps. Within minutes of Musk's reply appearing under the post, SLINK's market capitalization rocketed from effectively zero to tens of millions of dollars as traders raced to front-run the attention. The rally didn't last: on-chain trackers watched the token's valuation collapse by more than 97% soon after, erasing nearly all of the gains. Arkham's monitoring identified trader Aurelius0121 as one of the biggest casualties, having bought roughly $250,000 worth of SLINK near the top only to watch the position go to zero as the broader token price followed it down.
A Reply, Then a Rocket
Onchain sleuths flagged the @shivon account's SLINK-related posts as likely compromised almost immediately — the account has no prior history of promoting crypto tokens, and the posting pattern echoed earlier X account takeovers used to pump obscure tickers. The “hacked” label was never conclusively confirmed, though, and some early assessments circulating on X were walked back within hours. That ambiguity did nothing to slow the market's reaction to Musk's one-word reply.
According to Arkham's tracking of the wallets involved, SLINK's market capitalization went from effectively zero to around $20 million within minutes of the reply appearing, before climbing further as momentum traders piled in on social attention alone rather than any project fundamentals, whitepaper, or locked liquidity. The token's peak market cap approached $80 million before crashing to roughly $2 million — a drop of more than 97% from the top. Four wallets tracked across the episode lost a combined $807,000, with Aurelius0121's approximately $250,000 buy standing out as the single largest loss identified so far.
Why Reply-and-Pump Plays Keep Working
The episode is emblematic of a recurring weak point in crypto market structure: reply-and-pump trades that run entirely on attention rather than underlying value, concentrated in the fastest, least-regulated corner of the market — permissionless token launches where anyone can deploy a new ticker in seconds. It also illustrates a risk specific to this cycle: with account security on major social platforms still an unresolved problem, a single compromised or ambiguous post from someone adjacent to a high-profile figure can move markets just as effectively as a genuine announcement, without anyone bearing accountability once the token collapses. On-chain analytics firms like Arkham have built dedicated tooling to track wallet-level exposure in real time as these events unfold, turning what used to be an opaque, after-the-fact autopsy into a live, followable trail of buys, sells, and losses.
Related: Trader Loses $110K in Two Hours FOMOing Into a CZ-Linked Meme Coin
For traders, the SLINK round trip is a fresh data point in a well-documented pattern: assets that spike purely on the promise of celebrity attention tend to give back the overwhelming majority of their gains within hours, and the holders caught by the reversal are disproportionately those who bought after the price had already moved rather than at the very start. That dynamic held again here, with Aurelius0121's loss occurring well after SLINK had begun its ascent.
What Happens Next
Neither Shivon Zilis nor Elon Musk had issued any public clarification about the SLINK post or Musk's reply as of this writing, leaving the hacked-versus-genuine question formally unresolved even as the market has already moved on. Watch for whether Zilis's account posts a retraction or explanation in the coming days — that statement, more than any on-chain data, will determine whether this becomes a case study in account security failures or simply fades as an unexplained one-off. In the meantime, Arkham continues to monitor the wallets tied to the episode, including Aurelius0121's, for further activity, and traders will be watching whether platforms add any friction around high-profile accounts amplifying newly created tokens.
FAQ
What is SLINK and why did its price spike?
SLINK is a meme coin that surged from a near-zero market capitalization to nearly $80 million after Elon Musk replied “💯” to a post from Shivon Zilis's X account promoting it.
Was Shivon Zilis's account actually hacked?
The account's SLINK-related posts were widely suspected to be the result of a compromise, since Zilis has no history of promoting crypto tokens, though the claim was never conclusively confirmed and some early assessments were later walked back.
How much money did traders lose?
On-chain monitors tracked four wallets that lost a combined $807,000 as SLINK's market cap fell more than 97% from its peak, with trader Aurelius0121 accounting for roughly $250,000 of that total.
Did Elon Musk or Shivon Zilis comment on the incident?
As of this writing, neither had issued a public statement clarifying whether the account was compromised or addressing the token's subsequent collapse.
