A recent breach of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s X account, (formerly Twitter) has led to substantial financial losses in the cryptocurrency world. Damage valuing more than $691,000 has reportedly been wreaked after hackers posted a deceptive link, falsely promoting a free Nonfungible token (NFT).
According to ZachXBT, a prominent blockchain analyst, this underhanded operation resulted in a mass drain of around $691,000 from victims’ wallets. In a startling revelation, approximately 73% of the stolen value consisted of NFTs. To further the havoc, the most valuable NFT pilfered so far is CryptoPunk 3983, worth 153.62 ETH, roughly equivalent to $250,543.
The breach was confirmed by Buterin’s father, Dmitry Buterin, who advised people to disregard a post made via his son’s compromised account, which misleadingly celebrated ProtoDank sharding’s arrival on Ethereum. The hacker used this post to share a malicious link to a supposed “free commemorative” NFT. Unsuspecting victims, upon connecting their wallets, were stripped of their funds.
Among the victims is notable Ethereum developer Bok Khoo, aka Bokky Poobah on X, who confessed to suffering losses in his CryptoPunk NFT collection due to this deceptive operation. This incident adds fuel to an already raging fire as it comes only months after crypto investors reportedly lost a cumulative $54 million via various scams and hacks.
The method of breaching Buterin’s account is yet unclear. Speculation ranges from a possible SIM swap to theories that an insider may have been bribed to gain access. Given Buterin’s stature, with a large following of 4.9 million on X, such possibilities cannot be entirely disregarded.
This incident underscores the increasing security risks associated with the crypto-world, iterating the urgent need for stronger security measures, particularly on platforms handling sensitive information.
