Well, if you thought the world of cryptocurrency couldn’t get any stranger, think again. Dean Norris, best known for his iconic role as Hank Schrader in Breaking Bad, found himself the unwitting star of a memecoin scam that left his fans and followers scratching their heads. Here’s the wild story of how his X (formerly Twitter) account was hijacked to promote a memecoin that shot up to a mind-blowing value—before crashing harder than a Breaking Bad plot twist.
Hacked for a Memecoin: The Scam Behind DEAN Coin
On January 26, Norris took to his own X account to reveal that he’d been hacked and dragged into the mess of a memecoin scheme. The cryptocurrency in question? DEAN—a token that used his likeness to fuel a “pump and dump” scam. The idea was simple: use a celebrity’s name and face to hype up a worthless coin, then dump it once the price skyrockets.
In a fiery post, Norris called out Reddit users who had criticized him for being involved, angrily declaring, “Go fuck yourselves!” He made it crystal clear that he had nothing to do with this scam. The hacker(s) even used a doctored image of Norris holding a piece of paper featuring the DEAN ticker and its supposed launch date.
But here’s where it gets weirder: the hackers managed to post a deepfake-style video of Norris seemingly endorsing the coin. The video, which was shared on X, had Norris saying, “Hey, it’s me, Dean, and on January 25th, I’m declaring it’s real.” The video made it look like Norris was confirming the coin’s legitimacy.
However, given Norris’ active presence on platforms like Cameo, where celebrities make personalized video messages for fans, some users speculated that this could have been a deepfake or a paid video taken completely out of context. Talk about a Hollywood-level scam.
The DEAN Coin Surge: From $8M to $60K in 24 Hours
For a brief moment, DEAN was the hottest coin in town. According to DexScreener, a blockchain data tracker, the memecoin hit a market cap of $8.43 million on January 25. That’s right—a meme coin, powered by a Hollywood actor’s likeness, was worth over $8 million for a hot second. The price pumped hard—and fast.
But, as we all know in the crypto world, what goes up must come down. And come down it did. In a matter of hours, DEAN’s market cap plummeted, and its price tanked by a staggering 96%, leaving only a pitiful $60,000 behind. Talk about a “pump and dump” in the truest sense. The only thing that rose was the hacker’s bank account.
Norris Sets the Record Straight
In a follow-up post, Norris took the opportunity to set the record straight. He made it clear that he doesn’t have a Telegram account (which is where many crypto projects often coordinate their scams) and rarely uses X. He said he first realized his account had been compromised after receiving texts from friends asking what was going on. Yikes.
This wasn’t Norris’s first rodeo with crypto hacks, either. Back in November, on-chain detective ZachXBT uncovered a pattern of account takeovers targeting major figures, including McDonald’s, Usher, and—yep, you guessed it—Dean Norris. It turns out that scammers have been using well-known personalities to promote sketchy crypto projects. This latest attack was just a continuation of that troubling trend.
A Bigger Trend: Crypto Hijinks and Memecoin Frenzies
It seems that Norris isn’t the only one who’s been caught in the chaos of the memecoin boom. Just a few days before this whole mess with DEAN went down, Donald Trump also made waves by launching his own memecoin. On January 18, Trump’s surprise memecoin debut sent the market into a frenzy, with the coin reaching a market cap of nearly $9 billion—in just a few hours.
And while Trump’s launch wasn’t exactly a hack (unless you count the chaos that followed), the sheer volatility of these coins shows how unpredictable the memecoin space can be. One moment, you’re worth millions, and the next, you’re just another blip on the crypto radar.
What’s Next for Memecoins and Celebrity Endorsements?
With the rise of scams like the DEAN memecoin and other celebrity-backed tokens, the question is: how much longer can this ride last? Are memecoins just a passing trend, or is there more to this digital gold rush than meets the eye? It seems that as long as there’s money to be made, there will always be people ready to take advantage of unsuspecting fans.
For Dean Norris, this is likely the last time he wants to be involved in the crypto world—whether he’s endorsing it or not. And for the rest of us? We might want to think twice before jumping on the next shiny token, especially when it comes with a celebrity endorsement.
In the end, Norris’s X account hack is just another reminder that the world of crypto is as wild as it gets. Whether it’s a pump-and-dump scheme or a deepfake video, there’s no telling what will happen next. So, stay sharp out there—if a celebrity is involved, chances are there’s more to the story than meets the eye.
