Feb 5, 2025; New Orleans, LA, USA; The ESPN logo at the Super Bowl LIX media center at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
By Ben Axelrod on

No, ESPN isn’t trying to sell you a crypto meme coin — at least not yet.

Although you might have thought otherwise based on some of the network’s social media feeds on Thursday night.

Shortly after 7:30 p.m. ET, multiple ESPN social media accounts posted a curious advertisement for a cryptocurrency coin dubbed $ESPN. The posts, which touted the meme coin as “the official ESPN token” were made on ESPN’s and College GameDay’s verified Instagram accounts, as well as ESPN’s Facebook page.

“The future of fan engagement starts now!” the post read while advertising the coin as being available on the blockchain platform Solana.

As it turns out, the $ESPN coin was very much real — or at least as “real” as a meme coin can be — it just wasn’t actually affiliated with ESPN. As noted by Barstool Sports’ Jack McGuire, the coin’s price was initially pumped up around the same time the social media posts were made before the rug was ultimately (and unsurprisingly) pulled out from those holding it.

ESPN isn’t the first entity to fall victim to such a cyber attack and it won’t be the last. Just last week we saw former ESPN star Jemele Hill lose control of her X account for more than 24 hours, with the hackers flooding her feed with advertisements for meme coins.

But while ESPN’s accounts were only hacked for a relatively short period of time of time before being recovered, it’s surprising that an entity as big as the Disney-owned company could still fall susceptible to such a scheme considering all of the security measures it presumably has in place. It’s one thing to hack an ex-ESPN employee’s account. It’s another to hack the Worldwide Leader itself.

While there seemingly was at least some damage done via the apparent pump-and-dump scheme, it fortunately appears to have been minimal. And one would imagine this will lead to ESPN taking even further precautions to prevent such a situation from arising again.

About Ben Axelrod

Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.

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