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Vitalik Buterin’s X account compromised, resulting in the theft of more than $691,000 from users: Report
Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum (ETH), experienced a breach of his X (formerly Twitter) account, which, as reported on social media, led to losses exceeding $691,000 for victims through harmful links.
On September 9, Dmitry Buterin, Vitalik’s father, posted on X to inform that his son’s account had been compromised:
“Disregard this post, apparently Vitalik has been hacked. He is working on restoring access.”
The post he referenced has since been removed. It was shared on Buterin’s account, claiming to celebrate the introduction of “Proto-Danksharding coming to Ethereum.”
The hacker disseminated a harmful link to a purported free commemorative non-fungible token (NFT), luring victims to connect their wallets, ultimately resulting in the theft of their funds.
WARNING! I JUST LOST A FEW PUNKS!
DON’T INTERACT! pic.twitter.com/lS4VvlHdVa— [email protected] ohgod.et (@BokkyPooBah) September 9, 2023
As a result, this incident prompted a user on platform X to assert that they incurred losses to their CryptoPunk NFT collection.
At the time of writing, the current floor price for a CryptoPunk NFT is 46.99 Ether, roughly equivalent to $76,837.
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Blockchain investigator ZachXBT has been actively updating his 438,200 followers regarding the hacker’s actions, which have resulted in the unauthorized extraction of $691,000 from Buterin’s followers via the harmful link.
Update: $691k drained (another 33% in drainer fee address) pic.twitter.com/AVIShqDlMU
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) September 9, 2023
A user on X suggested that Buterin may not have employed adequate security measures for his X account.
“I hate to be the one to say it, but Vitalik should take accountability for his poor op-sec and compensate those affected,” the user remarked, implying that they believe Buterin’s negligence contributed to the breach:
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, this was a SIM swap.
Nonetheless, ZachXBT refuted these claims, arguing that Buterin’s prominence makes him vulnerable to various hacking attempts:
“You do not know yet whether it was a SIM swap. Vitalik is a big enough target to where an insider could have been paid off or a panel was used,” he stated.
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