This latest hack is only the latest in a slew of Twitter account compromises "announcing" a scam token. Over a year, OpenAI CTO Mira Murati had her account hacked to promote an "$OPENAI" token. Three months ago, accounts belonging to chief scientist Jakub Pachocki and researcher Jason Wei were hacked and used to post the same scam as today.
OpenAI Twitter account once again hacked and used to promote scam token
The Twitter account belonging to OpenAI's news account was compromised and used to "announce" a scam website purporting to announce the $OPENAI token. "All OpenAI users are eligible to claim a piece of $OPENAI’s initial supply. Holding $OPENAI will grant access to all of our future beta programs," the scam tweets claimed. A link in the tweets directed users to a malicious website that invited users to connect their wallets to claim tokens.
Shezmu hacked for almost $5 million, negotiates bounty
A crypto yield platform called Shezmu suffered a loss of around $4.9 million in $ShezUSD after an attacker exploited a flaw that allowed anyone to mint collateral, which they could then use to borrow ShezUSD. These tokens were relatively illiquid, however, so the total amount the attacker could have obtained was likely considerably less.
Shortly after the attack, Shezmu offered a 10% "bounty" for the return of the funds. The attacker responded that they would only consider a 20% bounty. Shezmu agreed to the terms, and announced to their followers that they had achieved a recovery from the "white hat" hacker.
BingX hacked for $52 million
Singaporean cryptocurrency exchange BingX suffered a $52 million loss across a broad range of cryptocurrencies. The thefts occurred across two attacks that were hours apart. The attack appears to have targeted one of the exchange's hot wallets.
Some accused the exchange of trying to cover up the theft by announcing "temporary wallet maintenance" without disclosing that a theft had occurred. The team later announced that "there has been minor asset loss", and stated that the lost funds would be restored out of the company's capital.
Around $10 million of the stolen assets were frozen during recovery efforts after the theft.
Germany seizes 47 cryptocurrency exchanges reportedly used by ransomware groups
German authorities have seized 47 cryptocurrency exchanges alleged to have been used to launder stolen funds by ransomware groups. The exchanges did not require KYC, allowing customers to remain anonymous throughout their transactions.
Websites for these exchanges now show notices announcing a law enforcement operation called "Operation Final Exchange". The page announces to visitors "This was your final exchange!", and in a letter addressed to "ransomware affiliates, botnet operators and darknet vendors", warns that authorities are now working to trace the illicit users of the exchange.
- "Germany seizes 47 crypto exchanges used by ransomware gangs", BleepingComputer
Almost $2 million taken from users of Telegram "Banana Gun" crypto trading bot
Some people use a Telegram-based crypto trading bot called "Banana Gun" to "snipe" crypto trades, copytrade, and perform other activities. On September 19, at least 11 victims lost around $3 million after their accounts were apparently compromised and drained.
Banana Gun acknowledged the attack on Twitter and shut down the bot. They posted that they did not believe their backend was compromised, and stated that they believed the attack occurred via a "front-end vulnerability" — though it was not clear what this might have referred to.
- "Telegram bot Banana Gun’s users drained of over $1.9M", CoinTelegraph [archive]
Arrests made after $243 million stolen from one individual in Gemini phishing attack
Two people have been arrested in relation to a phishing scam that successfully stole more than 4,000 BTC priced at around $243 million from a single individual. The victim was targeted with a phishing scam in which the attackers posed as Google support employees and convinced the victim to reset their two-factor authentication for their account on the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange.
The FBI raided a luxury home in Miami in connection to the theft, and arrested two men in their early twenties. Authorities worked with crypto investigators including zachxbt to trace the stolen funds.
Rari Capital settles with the SEC
The defi lending protocol Rari Capital, and its three co-founders, have settled charges from the SEC that it misled investors and engaged in unregistered broker activity. Rari Capital entities also settled charges that they conducted unregistered offerings of three securities, and engaged in unregistered securities offerings and unregistered broker activity. The SEC alleged that the firm and its co-founders made false statements to investors about supposedly automatic re-balancing of assets into the highest yield opportunities when, in fact, rebalancing was also done manually. The SEC also alleged that the company and its co-founders made misleading statements about the supposedly high yield from the platform, which they said did not account for fees, and which ultimately caused many investors to lose money.
The company and co-founders will pay fines, and the individuals will agree to five-year bans from serving as officers or directors.
The regional SEC director stated, "We will not be deterred by someone labeling a product as 'decentralized' and 'autonomous'," alluding to crypto firms' tendencies to try to skirt securities regulations by claiming to be "decentralized".
Rari has featured on Web3 is Going Just Great before, when they were exploited for around $80 million in April 2022 and when they were exploited for around $15 million in May 2021. The project effectively wound down soon after the second theft.
- "SEC Charges DeFi Platform Rari Capital and its Founders With Misleading Investors and Acting as Unregistered Brokers", U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission [archive]
Ethena website compromised
The website for the Ethena protocol was compromised by attackers who gained control of the project's domain registration. The protocol issued warnings to their users to urge them not to interact with the website, which could compromise their crypto holdings.
They later were able to deactivate the website and regain control of the domain. "Remember scammers are always chasing you," they wrote on Twitter.
$6 million taken from Delta Prime defi protocol
The DeltaPrime defi protocol suffered a $6 million loss after a private key was leaked. Access to the private key allowed the attacker to mint 1.1×1069 DPUSDC, which are tokens that allow holders to redeem the USDC stablecoin at a 1:1 ratio. They repeated the mint with several other deposit receipt tokens for bitcoin, ether, and other cryptocurrencies. Altogether, they redeemed a small fraction of these enormous quantities of deposit receipts, amounting to around $6 million in assets.
DeltaPrime acknowledged the attack on Twitter, and announced that "the risk is contained". They also stated that they were "looking into other ways to reduce user losses to a minimum", including by pulling from the protocol's insurance pool.
Flappy Bird creator disavows crypto spin-off
A blockchain-based version of the 2014 hit game Flappy Bird has emerged, taking advantage of the recent "tap-to-earn" crypto craze. The @flappy_bird Twitter account posted "I AM BACK!!" on September 12, with a video compilation showing people playing the original game. The tweet also claimed they were "working with [Flappy Bird's] predecessor", leading many to believe that the original Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen was involved with the project.
Nguyen famously removed the game from app stores shortly after it surged to popularity, stating that he felt guilty that people were becoming addicted to the game. This makes the game's reappearance — complete with loot boxes and other addictive features — feel somewhat dark.
On September 15, Nguyen returned from a seven-year Twitter hiatus to post: "No, I have no related with their game. I did not sell anything. I also don't support crypto."
Although Nguyen held the Flappy Bird trademark, he did not sell it to this group. Instead, they registered the trademark themselves after arguing he had abandoned it.