The official Pokémon profile on X has responded after its account was hacked by an unknown party who shared a post linking out to a memecoin.
The hack occurred around 3 PM PT on August 17, 2026. The post — which has since been deleted — was cleverly structured, appearing as an official Pokémon advertisement with a link to a site that, at first glance, looked like a legitimate page celebrating the brand’s 30th anniversary, which is ongoing.
“Celebrate 30 years of Pokémon in a whole new way!” the post read. “Introducing $POKEMON, the official Pokemon memecoin. Join trainers around the world and be part of the #Pokemon30 celebration.”
The post was up for around thirty minutes before it was finally taken down. Most commenters weren’t fooled, though, and it wasn’t long before proposed community notes began appearing underneath the supposed scam on X.
Pokémon published a statement addressing the hack shortly afterward, acknowledging that the account had been compromised for a thirty-minute period.
“We’re aware that our X account was accessed without authorization and used to publish posts promoting a cryptocurrency,” it wrote. “Those posts were not created or approved by Pokémon and have been removed. We have secured the account and are investigating the incident. We’re sorry for the confusion and appreciate your patience.”
The @Pokemon handle on X was temporarily compromised earlier for ~30 minutes.
We’re aware that our X account was accessed without authorization and used to publish posts promoting a cryptocurrency.
Those posts were not created or approved by Pokémon and have been removed. We…
— Pokémon (@Pokemon) August 27, 2026
Fans flooded the comments underneath this post with relief, along with endless memes joking that Team Rocket must’ve been behind the hack. However, this post was also deleted shortly after being published, and no follow-up remarks have yet been made on the account regarding the hack.
It’s unclear if any damage was done as a result of the incident, but this wouldn’t be the first time the brand has been digitally infiltrated; in late 2024, a hacker performed one of the largest leaks of Pokémon materials in history after servers at developer GameFreak were breached.
What resulted was “hundreds of gigabytes to nearly a terabyte” of internal data getting spread around the net, which reportedly included concept art, unused Pokémon prototoypes, source code, and even codenames for planned future games.
And in 2025, hackers released Pokémon Legends: Z-A files that included gameplay videos showing cut content and early builds of the game.
Thankfully, this latest incident wasn’t nearly as terrifying as either of those two hacks, and the official Pokémon account is far from the first profile on X to get hijacked by cryptocoin scammers… though that isn’t exactly a comforting thought. In fact, the hacker behind the infamous GTA 6 leaks has also hawked a crypto scheme, though the gameplay footage they showed pales in comparison to the viral Netflix showcase that aired on the platform earlier today.
Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she’s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze.
