Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin’s X Was Hacked, $700,000 NFT Swindle

• Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin had his X account hacked, with hackers posting a malicious link.
• The link resulted in the theft of $691,000 from some of his 4.9 million users who followed it on his page. 
• The post was a fake announcement of a new non-fungible token series. 

A hacker gained access to the X account of ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and posted a malicious link to 4.9 million followers on Saturday. 

The post was disguised as a free commemorative non-fungible token from software firm Consensys. Users who clicked on it and connected their digital wallets in a bid to mint an NFT instead had their funds drained.  

Popular blockchain sleuth ZachXBT found that the attacker swindled a total of about $691,000, though the exact number of victims is not known.

ZachXBT also pointed out that the hacker sent Buterin an NFT named “Vitalik” following the attack.  

The post has since been deleted, and several X users flagged it to others on the platform, warning that it was a hacker. Buterin’s father, Dmitriy, was among those who shared a word of caution in a post.

As for Buterin, he has not commented on the matter or posted anything on X since the hack happened. 

Big money swindles are nothing new in the digital asset space. In 2022, hackers made off with $3.8 billion, with North Korea-linked hacking groups leading the way with record theft volumes. Among the largest was Lazarus Group, which was a key player in the infamous $620 million Axie Infinity hack last year.