The creator of the viral ‘Chill Guy’ character has revealed his Twitter/X account was hacked after a post was made claiming he struck a licensing deal with the $ChillGuy crypto project.
In September 2024, a simple drawing of an anthropomorphic animal character started going viral on social media. The drawing was illustrated by X user ‘PhillipBanksss’ in 2023, who described the character as “a chill guy that lowkey doesn’t give a f*ck.”
A year later, Banks’ post took over the internet like wildfire and continues to be one of the top memes months later (that’s like a million years by internet standards).
It wasn’t long before netizens started making their own creations with the ‘Chill Guy’ character and selling them online — something that Banks wasn’t happy about, especially after a crypto coin arose in the market called $CHILLGUY.
“Just putting it out there, Chill Guy has been copyrighted,” Banks wrote in a post on November 20, 2024. “Like, legally. I’ll be issuing takedowns on for-profit-related things over the next few days.”
He went on to explain that he didn’t care if brand accounts used Chill Guy for a trend or meme, but wasn’t a fan of “unauthorized merchandise or sh*tcoins” using his character.
‘Chill Guy’ creator didn’t actually strike deal with crypto project
A post published to his X account on December 12 claimed that he struck a deal with the minds behind $CHILLGUY.
“Some members of [the] $CHILLGUY token reached out to me and we had a long discussion,” he explained. “They have been really supportive and nice, and we reached an agreement.
“I’ve decided to provide licensing and IP rights to the $CHILLGUY token and team.”
However, Banks took to his Instagram account to reveal his X page was hacked, and warned fans about any “weird messages.”
“My Twitter [X] was hacked, and a few other things were compromised so be on the lookout for any weird messages..” he said.
It’s unknown whether or not Banks has regained access to his X account, but the tweets claiming he struck a deal with the $ChillGuy crypto project have been deleted.