Pokémon Disavows Unauthorized Memecoin Promotion Ahead of World Championships Following Hack

This weekend is shaping up to be a major event for Pokémon enthusiasts as the annual World Championships kicks off in San Francisco. While it’s common for the franchise to ramp up its social media presence leading up to the tournament, fans were caught off guard by a promotion for a Pokémon-themed crypto memecoin that appeared on official channels just a day before the festivities.

The official Pokémon X account announced a celebration for the series’ 30th anniversary in “a whole new way,” unveiling $POKEMON as the “official” Pokémon memecoin. The post included a lengthy contract address and a link to the official 30th-anniversary website. While I’m not diving into the crypto world myself, we reached out to The Pokémon Company to clarify whether this is a legitimate (albeit unusual) promotion or if the account has been compromised. Notably, this post didn’t appear on any of the company’s other social media platforms, which raises suspicions about a potential hack. We’ll keep you posted if we receive any updates.

Update: 8/27/26, 6:22 p.m. ET: The Pokémon Company has confirmed that the account was indeed hacked.

The @Pokemon handle on X was temporarily compromised for about 30 minutes.

We’re aware that our X account was accessed without authorization and used to publish posts promoting a cryptocurrency.

Those posts were not created or approved by Pokémon and have been removed. We…

— Pokémon (@Pokemon) August 27, 2026