Vitalik Buterin’s X account hacked, draining over $691K from victims

Following the reported breach of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s X (formerly Twitter) account, victims suffered losses exceeding $691,000 due to a malicious link that falsely promoted a free NFT.

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum (ETH) has allegedly had his X (formerly Twitter) account compromised. According to prominent blockchain investigator ZachXBT, the incident has led to victims losing over $691,000 after clicking on a malicious link.

In a Sept. 9 post on X, Dmitry Buterin, the father of Vitalik, announced that his son’s account has been compromised:

Consequently, this incident has led to Ethereum developer Bok Khoo, better known on X as Bokky Poobah, to claim he has suffered losses in his CryptoPunk NFT collection. 

At the time of publication, the prevailing floor price for a CryptoPunk NFT stands at 46.99 Ether, which is approximately equivalent to $76,837.

ZachXBT has been actively informing his 438,200 followers about the hacker’s activities. He recently shared that the most valuable NFT pilfered so far is “CryptoPunk #3983,” worth 153.62 Ether, equivalent to approximately $250,543.

A user on X claimed that Buterin might not have implemented sufficient 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 noted, before implying that he believes Buterin’s oversight led to the attack:

The only way this isn’t negligence on Vitalik 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.

However, ZachXBT challenged these allegations, asserting that Buterin’s high profile makes him susceptible to various forms of 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 panel was used,” he stated.