- Near Protocols’ recent marketing stunt has raised heightened discussions, with some criticizing the act while others hail it as “genius.”
- The stunt has garnered a lot of attention, but NEAR’s price value remains bearish.
Near protocol, a layer-1 blockchain platform sparked a heated debate within the crypto community after it appeared to confirm what was perceived to be an account hack of its X account was, in fact, a strategic marketing stunt. What was the marketing gimmick? To promote the platform’s upcoming hackathon event.
Things got dramatic when NEAR officials posted a message via the X platform stating, “On September 4th, at approximately 14:25 EST, the NEAR Protocol X account was hijacked.” According to the post, the hackers posted a series of disappearing posts meant to “dissuade, demotivate, and criticize the NEAR and wider Web3 ecosystems, with a particular focus on slandering the upcoming flagship event [REDACTED], Nov 9-11, Bangkok.”
A statement from the NEAR Ecosystem regarding today's events. pic.twitter.com/3GeQCafN5d
— NEAR Protocol (@NEARProtocol) September 4, 2024
That wasn’t the end of it; in a twist that captured the crypto community, the statement mentioned “notorious hacker Four Chan” as a possible culprit. Four Chan is known for his frequent hacks for trolling purposes, where he enjoys mocking his victims and the followers of the victims. The announcement also featured a quote from security expert ‘Mike Rotch’ and heavily promoted the hackathon, which led to crypto Twitter questioning the entire incident.
Crypto Community Erupts
NEAR’s PR move didn’t take long before igniting fierce reactions. Many users were quick to call out the company for “clout chasing.” This is not the first time NEAR’s X account has been hacked. In May this year, a similar incident happened to the L-1 platform. Funny enough, in both scenarios, the community did not lose any funds as no malicious link and no scam token contract address were published by the attacker.
In May, cryptic messages appeared on the protocol’s X account, considering both scenarios, raises suspicions of a potential pattern in its marketing efforts.
Given the existing skepticism surrounding security measures surrounding the $2 trillion industry, others expressed concerns about the implications of such a stunt, terming it a reckless move. One angry user wrote “Pretending that your socials have been hacked in order to do a 4chan/Max Headroom style gimmick doesn’t make you marketing savvy, It makes you dumb as f*ck for normalizing breaches.”
Despite the crypto community’s backlash, some were sarcastically impressed by the market move. Some members hailed the move as “genius.” Others called it the “best content to have ever existed on your profile.” Some even joked that the ‘hacker’ should be reinstated for providing more engaging content than the platform typically offered.
While the stunt has undoubtedly raised NEAR’s profile, the question remains: was it worth the risk?
To answer your question, at the time of writing, NEAR is swapping hands with $3.63, marking a 4.73% decline in the last 24 hours. Additionally, its market cap is 4.66% short landing at $4,075,502,449.
