Roaring Kitty’s deleted post on X sparked a collapse in the meme coin RKC, erasing roughly 90% of its value within hours.
Many traders who bought into the hype suffered significant losses, while blockchain data suggests the token’s developer withdrew more than $600,000 before the price imploded.
RKC Developer Reportedly Took Home Over $600,000
Keith Gill’s verified X account, Roaring Kitty, which has about 1.6 million followers, broke a 16-month silence on May 11 with a brief post that sent markets into a frenzy. At around 21:13 GMT the account shared a Solana Pump.fun contract address for a newly launched meme coin called Red Kitten Crew (RKC), accompanied by a short cartoon clip.
Minutes later a second post appeared showing an image captioned “red bandit crew 4 life,” but that post was subsequently deleted. The sudden activity prompted a rush of speculative buying that briefly pushed RKC higher. When the posts were removed, however, panic selling ensued and the token plunged roughly 90%, wiping millions from its market capitalization.
Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain later reported that the meme coin’s developer had withdrawn 6,260 SOL — roughly $611,000 at the time — before the posts were deleted. Their analysis indicates the developer used about 20 SOL (around $1,950) across 10 wallets to acquire 395.18 million RKC tokens, equal to about 39.52% of the total supply, then sold the holdings for approximately $495,000.
Lookonchain also found that the developer collected an additional 1,209 SOL — roughly $118,000 — via creator fees tied to the token.
Deleted Posts Spur Hack and Scam Speculation
On-chain observers pointed out that the episode follows a recurring pattern in crypto: influencer-linked hype drives speculative buying, developers or insiders exit, and retail investors take the losses. Some analysts questioned whether the Roaring Kitty posts were authentic, noting Gill is known for his GameStop commentary and has not publicly promoted meme coins previously. That has fueled speculation the account might have been compromised.
High-profile account takeovers have been used before to promote meme-coin schemes, with past incidents involving public figures and major brands. Examples include a compromised account used to push a fake Bitcoin giveaway and others that promoted Solana-based meme coin scams; those breaches briefly boosted trading volumes before abrupt collapses.
Separately, the Pump.fun platform that hosted the RKC launch has faced scrutiny. Researchers have claimed a large share of tokens deployed on the platform show signs commonly associated with scams or wash trading. Pump.fun has also been the target of two class-action lawsuits alleging the platform facilitated the launch of unregistered tokens and improperly collected significant fees, with plaintiffs alleging potential violations of securities law.
The RKC episode highlights persistent risks in speculative token markets: rapid hype can produce sharp price moves, and when insiders or service providers extract value quickly, ordinary traders can be left holding assets that quickly lose most of their worth.