Hacker Promotes Scam Through Vitalik Buterin’s X Account

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s X account was hacked this weekend to steal approximately $700,000 in crypto and NFTs.

The hackers advertised a fake commemorative NFT mint and provided a link to a phishing website which would drain cryptocurrencies and NFTs from wallets that interacted with it.

According to estimates from crypto sleuth ZachXBT and on-chain data, the attack included one CryptoPunk NFT worth 153 ETH ($250,000). It appears that the hackers used Pink drainer software to carry out the attack.

Pink has been used in several other phishing attacks this year, including those targeting the Discords of Orbiter Finance, LiFi, Flare and Evmos, as well as Steve Aoki’s X account and more.

The attackers often pose as journalists, claiming to be associated with crypto media organizations and asking the target to bookmark a document in their browser, thereby enabling the malicious code to gain a foothold.