Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum (ETH) allegedly had his X account (formerly Twitter) compromised. According to prominent blockchain researcher ZachXBT, the incident has caused victims to lose more than $691,000 after clicking on a malicious link.
On September 9 mail On X, Dmitry Buterin, Vitalik's father, announced that his son's account was compromised:
โIgnore this post, apparently Vitalik has been hacked. He is working to restore access.โ
The post he was referring to has since been deleted. It was posted on Buterin's account and claimed to celebrate the arrival of "Proto-Danksharding next Ethereum."
The hacker shared a malicious link to an alleged free commemorative non-fungible token (NFT) available, tempt victims to connect their wallets, before finally stealing all their funds.
Consequently, this incident has led Ethereum developer Bok Khoo, better known on X as "Bokky Poobah", to claim that he has suffered losses in your CryptoPunk NFT collection.
WARNING! I JUST LOST SOME PUNKS!
DO NOT INTERACT! pic.twitter.com/lS4VvlHdVa
โ chiefeditor.eth@encyclopediagalactica.eth ohgod.et (@BokkyPooBah) September 9, 2023
At the time of this publication, the current minimum price for a CryptoPunk NFT is 46.99 Ether, which is approximately equivalent to $76,837.
Related: Blockchain Capital Account X Hacked to Promote Token Claim Scam
ZachXBT has been actively informing its 438,200 followers about the hacker's activities. He recently shared that most valuable The NFT stolen so far is "CryptoPunk #3983", worth 153.62 Ether, equivalent to approximately $250,543.
Update: $691k drained (another 33% in drain fee direction) pic.twitter.com/AVIShqDlMU
- ZachXBT (@zachxbt) September 9, 2023
A user with the alias "Satoshi 767" on X reclaimed that Buterin may not have implemented sufficient security measures for his X account.
"I hate to be the one to say it, but Vitalik should take responsibility for his poor operational security and compensate those affected," he said, before hinting that he believes Buterin's oversight led to the attack:
The only way this isn't negligence on Vitalik's 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 it was a SIM change.
However, ZachXBT challenged these accusations, stating that Buterin's high profile makes him susceptible to various forms of hacking attempts:
"It is not yet known if it was a SIM card swap. Vitalik is a big enough target that an insider could have been paid or a panel used," he said.
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