Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, had his X (formerly Twitter) account allegedly compromised, leading to victims losing over $691,000 after interacting with malicious links, according to blockchain investigator ZachXBT. The incident was confirmed by Vitalik's father, Dmitry Buterin, who revealed the hacking in a post on X on September 9. Dmitry stated that Vitalik was working to regain access to his account.
The initial compromised post, celebrating "Proto-Danksharding coming to Ethereum," has since been removed. In this post, hackers shared a deceptive link offering a free commemorative non-fungible token (NFT). Those who clicked the link were prompted to connect their wallets, which ultimately resulted in their funds being stolen.
Ethereum developer Bok Khoo, known as Bokky Poobah on X, reported losses to his CryptoPunk NFT collection due to the incident. The current floor price of CryptoPunk NFTs is approximately $76,837 as of the time of writing, with the most valuable NFT stolen being CryptoPunk # 3983, valued at around $250,543, according to ZachXBT.
While some X users have criticized Vitalik's security measures, suggesting he should be held accountable for the attack, ZachXBT argues that high-profile individuals like Vitalik are susceptible to various hacking methods, including insider threats or bribes. The exact method of compromise remains uncertain, with possibilities ranging from a SIM swap to insider involvement.
