The X (formerly Twitter) account of Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain and Ether (ETH) cryptocurrency, has been compromised. Dmitry Buterin, Vitalik’s father, revealed news of the attack on Saturday, September 9.
The senior Buterin put out a post warning users to disregard a post uploaded by the scammer on his son’s account celebrating an upcoming “Proto-Danksharding” feature on the Ethereum network.
Hacker Promotes Malicious NFT Link On Vitalik’s X Account To Drain Victim’s Wallets
The alleged hacker had shared a post posing as Vitalik that contained a link to a website offering commemorative NFTs by Web3 software development company Consensys.
The deceptive message, which has since been taken down, asked users to connect their Ethereum wallets to get their hands on the digital collectibles that were available for free in a 24-hour giveaway.
Unfortunately for the victims, the website was malicious and the NFTs were non-existent, leading to their wallets being drained of all funds.
Prominent blockchain sleuth ZachXBT was the first to report on the hack that saw victims lose over $691,000 in various crypto assets, including NFTs.
Some credible names in the industry also fell into the trap, like Ethereum developer Bok Khoo, better known as BokkyPooBah on X, who asked users to not interact with the link as he had lost a few CryptoPunk NFTs that he owned by connecting his wallet to the malicious website.
ZachXBT has been actively informing his followers about the hacker’s activities. He reported that the most expensive NFT that got stolen in the attack was a CryptoPunk #3983, worth an estimated 153.62 ETH or $250,543 at the time of writing.
X Users Call On Vitalik To Refund Victims For Their Losses
Another X user known as Satoshi_767 called out Vitalik for not implementing sufficient security measures for his social media accounts. He also noted that SIM-swap attacks are a common mistake that many crypto founders fall victim to, and has asked the Ethereum co-founder to come forward and reimburse the victims.
However, ZachXBT has instead defended Vitalik, stating that the Russian-native computer programmer’s high profile makes him a target of various kinds of hacking attempts.
He claims that nobody is sure whether it was a SIM-swap attack as it could also have been an X insider that was tipped off to provide access to the account.
Read More: Bitcoin And Crypto Prices Tumble As G20 Nations Agree On Unified Crypto Regulatory Standard
Crypto Influencers Warn Users To Be Careful Of Malicious Links
Blockchain analysts and security experts are warning X users to be careful of such links being posted from verified accounts as bad actors are now using verified bots to strategically target influential X accounts with a large following.
In the past months, hackers have compromised the social media profiles of entrepreneur Peter Schiff, Uniswap founder Hayden Adams, Sandbox CEO Arthur Madrid, and popular NFT artist Beeple.
The deceptive post has been taken down from Vitalik’s profile, but it is not clear whether the Ethereum founder has regained access to his account.
Crypto phishing scams via social media are becoming a huge concern for the industry, with many high-profile crypto figures condemning such attacks and pleading with investors to be vigilant and always verify the links they visit.
At the time of writing, Ether (ETH) is trading at $1,594.85 – down 1.8% since its previous day’s price.
Read More: Bitcoin Price Can Surge To $46,000 Before 2024 Halving
