Explore the hack of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s X (formerly Twitter) account and the subsequent $691,000 scam that ensued.
Victims allegedly lost more than $691,000 as a result of a fraudulent link that falsely advertised a free NFT following the hack of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s X (previously Twitter) account.
Co-founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin apparently had his X (formerly Twitter) account hijacked. ZachXBT, a well-known blockchain investigator, claims that the event resulted in victims losing over $691,000 in total as a result of clicking on a rogue link.
Dmitry Buterin, Vitalik’s father, disclosed that his son’s account had been compromised in a post on X on September 9:
Disregard this post, apparently Vitalik has been hacked. He is working on restoring access.
He was referring to a post that has since been taken down. On Buterin’s account, it was posted with the claim that it meant to mark the advent of “Proto-Danksharding coming to Ethereum.”
The hacker lured users into connecting their wallets before taking all of their money by sharing a fraudulent link to a supposed free commemorative nonfungible token (NFT).
Bok Khoo, an Ethereum developer also known as Bokky Poobah on X, claims he has incurred losses in his collection of CryptoPunk NFTs as a result of this occurrence.
The current floor price for a CryptoPunk NFT is 46.99 ETH ETH tickers down $1,624 at the time of publication, which is roughly comparable to $76,837.
ZachXBT has been regularly updating his 438,200 followers on the activities of the hacker. He just revealed that CryptoPunk #3983, valued 153.62 ETH, or roughly $250,543, is the most valuable NFT that has been stolen so far.
According to a user using the X alias Satoshi 767, Buterin’s X account may not have had adequate security safeguards in place
He said, “I hate to be the one to say it, but Vitalik should take accountability for his poor op-sec and compensate those affected,” before he hinted that he thought Buterin’s oversight caused the attack:
The only way this isn’t negligence on Vitalik part is if someone at X internally compromised the account, or if he was coerced in person by a criminal who threatened violence. I highly doubt that’s what happened. Most likely, this was a SIM swap.
Buterin was accused of being vulnerable to different hacking efforts, according to ZachXBT, who refuted these claims:
“As of right now, you don’t know if it was a SIM exchange. Vitalik is a significant enough target that an insider may have been bought off or a panel may have been employed, according to ZachXBT.
