Wholesome Solana Meme Coin Dev Hacked for $1.2 Million—But Says He Won’t Give Up

Ronald Branstetter made a meme coin that skyrocketed to a market cap of $420 million, turning him from a crypto skeptic to a fan of the space. But now, six weeks since his first foray into the industry, he says that he’s lost everything in a wallet hack.

Branstetter launched Unicorn Fart Dust (UFD) from his basement in December, in an attempt to prove to his YouTube audience of gold and silver investors that crypto is worthless—or as he called it, “Unicorn Fart Dust.”

Meme coin gamblers saw this video, however, and bought the coin en masse—causing his token to skyrocket, quickly turning Branstetter’s holdings into $1.2 million worth of UFD.

On the first night the token went flying, Branstetter sold half of his holdings, but told Decrypt three weeks ago that he regretted doing so, wants to buy more, and has no plans to sell—despite admitting that the money would be life-changing. 

However, on Monday afternoon, Branstetter claims that his wallet was hacked, with the attacker selling everything he had in his wallet. 

On-chain data shows that over $1 million worth of UFD was sent to an unknown wallet, and then all of the tokens were sold across approximately 50 transactions before the received Solana was spread across countless wallets. That’s not to mention the approximately $200,000 worth of Solana and other tokens that were drained from Branstetter’s wallet.

Within 20 minutes of noticing the hack, the meme coin community leader started a livestream to explain the situation to his community. In the 10-minute video, Branstetter admitted that he was shook up by the experience. He broke down crying and said that he doesn’t regret creating the token, and confirmed that he wants to continue with the project.

“If I had to go back and do it all over again, I say yes, I’d do it all over again,” Branstetter said, before pausing with tears filling up his eyes. “I’d still do it over again because I know that there are still good people, and that good attracts good.”

UFD is down 24% over the last 24 hours to a current price of $0.123. It’s down 69% from its all-time high mark set just over a week ago.

Branstetter later revealed that he was tricked by a fake reporter from an unnamed organization, who may have gained unauthorized access to his accounts. After clicking the video call link, an interview did occur, but Branstetter said it “felt off from the beginning.”

Almost immediately, he said, the wallet was drained. This, unfortunately, is a common scam in the world of crypto—with some scammers impersonating Decrypt in attempts to try and swindle people in the industry.

“Nothing has changed about Unicorn Fart Dust. Unicorn Fart Dust is still [about] ‘good attracts good.’ I still believe in Unicorn Fart Dust. I still believe in the community,” Branstetter explained.

As the news broke, some people speculated that the meme coin creator had sold the tokens himself and faked the entire hack. This crowd appears to be a minority, however, as much of the UFD community has rallied behind its creator once again, sending over $425,000 of the token to a new mutli-sig wallet—intended to be controlled by the token creator.

“You have touched me very, very deeply through what has probably been some of my darkest hours,” Branstetter said in a livestream following the donations. “You are providing, right now, an example to the world of the good that a community can do.”

Edited by Andrew Hayward