This X (formerly Twitter) account claiming to belong to Somali international referee Omar Artan and popularising a cryptocurrency coin called ARTAN Coin is a HOAX.
Once you click the ARTAN coin link, the user is directed to the Phantom website, where the coin is listed, trading at $0.0000019 as of 29 June 2026. The page claims that the cryptocurrency has a circulating supply of Sh1 billion and a market cap of $1,900.
However, there is a warning on the Phantom website: “This token is unverified. Only interact with tokens you trust.” Only one person is holding the Artan coin, which is a red flag.
The X account, which is popularising the Artan coin, goes by the username “OMAR ARTAN” and handle “@ARTANCoin”. It had 142 followers and was following zero people as of 29 June 2026.
The X account uses Artan’s images as its profile and cover photos and was created in December 2025. However, its username has been changed four times, most recently in June 2026, a potential red flag.
The account’s posts are largely focused on the ARTAN Coin, with a few references to Artan being denied entry into the US and missing the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Notably, its first post appeared on 10 June 2026, four days after Artan was denied entry at Miami International Airport and removed from the US following visa revocation over vetting concerns.
Using his official Facebook page, Artan said on 11 June 2026 that he does not own an X account and any such accounts do not represent him.
“I never had an X or formerly know as Twitter account in My Life. Any Account in an X does not represent me. My accounts are always verified and any unverified accounts you see in an any platform does not represent me,” Artan wrote on his official Facebook page.
However, on 16 June 2026, Artan opened an X account.
“I never had an X or twitter and the only one I have right now is this so please join,” Artan informed his followers through his Facebook page.
The X account that Artan shared on his Facebook page had 7,381followers and was following 3 people as of 29 June 2026. The account’s bio shows that the X account was created in June 2026 and the account owner is based in Somalia. Artan’s authentic X account goes by the username “Omar Artan” and handle “@OmarAArtan”. The X account uses a photo of Artan as its profile photo, but it doesn’t have a cover photo. The X account’s bio reads, “This is My Official X Account, any other account does not represent me”.
Artan’s legitimate X account only has one post which was published on 16 June 2026. The X post reads, “This is my official X account Please Joing (sic) me”.
The X account under investigation was initially verified but lost its verification mark after some weeks. It’s important to note that even fake X accounts can get verified if they pay for the subscription and meet the platform’s baseline requirements. So the fact that the account under investigation was initially verified does not mean it’s authentic.
Meanwhile, Artan’s official Facebook page is also verified, but unlike the X account under investigation,
the Facebook page was created way earlier, on 23 January 2016. Since its creation, the Facebook page has maintained the same username “Omar Abdulkadir Artan”. As of 15 June 2026, the Facebook page had 378,000 followers and was following one person. Artan’s Facebook bio reads, “FIFA INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL REFEREE #SOMALI REFEREE”.
PesaCheck has looked into an X account claiming to belong to Somali referee Omar Artan and popularising a cryptocurrency coin called Artan coin and found it to be a HOAX.
This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.
Have you spotted what you think is fake or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.
This fact-check was written by PesaCheck fact-checker Naomi Wanjiku and edited by PesaCheck senior copy editors Mary Mutisya and Cedrick Irakoze.
The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck managing editor Doreen Wainainah.
PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape the government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water/sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.
PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations.