Ethereum dips after founder Vitalik Buterin’s Twitter account gets hacked

Posted: September 10, 2023

• Within the guise of an NFT promotion, a hacker connected a phishing hyperlink to the tweet.
• It was estimated that the hacker managed to steal funds exceeding $100,000 by this assault. 

In a current flip of occasions, Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum [ETH], fell sufferer to a hacking incident involving his Twitter account. This breach of safety raised issues inside the cryptocurrency neighborhood and will probably influence the sentiment surrounding Ethereum.

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What the hack

The hacking incident concerned the unauthorized use of Vitalik Buterin’s Twitter account. The attacker, within the guise of selling an NFT assortment related to the agency ConsenSys, connected a phishing hyperlink within the tweet.

Supply: X/twitter

The hacker’s actions on Vitalik’s account instantly raised alarms, prompting a warning from PeckhieldInc, a cybersecurity firm specializing within the crypto sector.

Is your twitter account hacked? @VitalikButerin https://t.co/L3EQyF9N7A

— PeckShield Inc. (@peckshield) September 9, 2023

Nonetheless, it’s value noting that the swift response of the crypto neighborhood and cybersecurity specialists resulted within the elimination of the malicious tweets from Vitalik’s account. On the time of writing, it appeared that Vitalik’s Twitter account was again in secure arms.

The monetary implications of this safety breach had been substantial. It’s estimated that the hacker managed to steal funds exceeding $100,000 by this assault. An examination of the pockets’s holdings revealed a stability of $397,138.21 on the time of discovery.

You’ll be able to hint the exercise of the @VitalikButerin hacker right here on @ArkhamIntel:https://t.co/3rsPFJsK3T

So excess of $100,000 in stolen funds.

The extra you unfold consciousness messages, the much less victims there might be.

Hacker tackle:
0x4eF6f0d3f94fF609ACef88068b1FC66a1184b3f3 https://t.co/VOnD6HcQov

— Yazan (@YazanXBT) September 9, 2023

Nearly all of belongings held by the hacker within the compromised pockets are in ETH, adopted by different tokens like ATOR, wrapped ETH, USDC, and BNB.

Supply: Arkham Intelligence

Apparently, the hacker gained access to Vitalik Buterin’s Twitter account by a way often called SIM swap. This system entails transferring a cellphone quantity from one SIM card to a different, typically completed by cooperation or fraud with cellular carriers.

Unauthorized SIM swaps can result in identification theft and unauthorized entry to on-line accounts, posing extreme dangers to people’ belongings and private info.

How is ETH doing?

This breach of security may influence the sentiment round ETH as properly. In keeping with Santiment’s knowledge, the weighted sentiment round ETH declined materially over the previous few days.

Sensible or not, right here’s ETH’s market cap in BTC phrases

Moreover, Ethereum’s value skilled a decline as properly. On the time of writing, Ethereum was buying and selling at $1623, signaling a drop in worth.

Nonetheless, regardless of the value downturn, the variety of Ethereum addresses holding non-zero balances continued to develop. Glassnode knowledge revealed that the variety of non-zero addresses reached an all-time excessive of 105,721,874.

Supply: Santiment