The X account of Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has apparently suffered a breach by scammers spreading phishing links. The attack, which manifested itself in the form of a post offering free digital collectibles, has allegedly resulted in the loss of over $690,000 for those who fell for the fraud.
Scammers Lure Victims With Phishing Post From Vitalik Buterin’s X Profile
The X (formerly Twitter) account of Vitalik Buterin, an influential voice in the crypto space, has been compromised by fraudsters seeking to drain victims’ wallets. The post pretended to “celebrate Proto-Danksharding coming to Ethereum” with a collection of “free” non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
On Saturday, Vitalik’s father warned on X about the malicious tweet that has since been deleted. “Disregard this post, apparently Vitalik has been hacked,” Dmitry Buterin urged users on the social media, adding that the founder of Ethereum “is working on restoring access.”
The post offered victims to follow a link, connect their wallets and claim the commemorative collectible. Among them was Ethereum developer Bok Khoo, X handle @Bokkypoobah, who tweeted he had “lost a few Punks” and called on followers: “Don’t interact!”
Blockchain enthusiast and crypto detective ZachXBT (@zachxbt), who is dedicating efforts to uncovering rug pulls and exposing malicious players within the crypto space, revealed in a tweet that the total drained by the perpetrators of the attack amounts to $691,000.
ZachXBT later updated followers about the stolen assets, among which Cryptopunk #3983 and Cryptopunk #1751 had the highest estimated value of 153.62 ETH (around $250,000 at the time of writing) and 58.18 ETH respectively.
Chinese crypto journalist Colin Wu, known on X as Wu Blockchain, was also among those who issued a warning about the suspected hacking of Buterin’s account. In his post, he recalled that the X account of Uniswap founder and member of the Ethereum Foundation, Hayden Adams, was hit in a similar fashion earlier this year. In follow-up tweet, Wu suggested that the hacking of Vitalik’s Twitter may be linked to a hacker or a group of hackers dubbed “Pink Drainer.”
Vitalik’s Twitter hacking may be linked to PinkDrainer. The scammer’s wallet address is: 0x4e…b3f3, and the total loss exceeds $691k worth of assets. The two largest funds were two CryptoPunks NFTs originally belonging to bokkypoobah.eth. https://t.co/RiGkyEOtL7
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) September 10, 2023
Prominent members of the crypto community are not the only targeted by crypto scammers seeking to exploit social media profiles. In June, the Twitter account of Bitcoin critic and gold proponent Peter Schiff was found shilling a “groundbreaking cryptocurrency token” called $GOLD in a series of tweets posted by hackers that presented the coin as “a complete and utter gamechanger for gold-backed DeFi.”
How do you think was Vitalik Buterin’s X account compromised? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.