Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has revealed that the account of its educational project, Giggle Academy has faced a security breach and has been hacked.
CZ also said on social media that the company is putting a lot of effort into recovering the official X account. The hack is one of the many Twitter account breaches the industry has seen since the beginning of this year.
Crypto Investors See Rise in X Account Hacks
Many crypto investors are concerned about the safety and security of their funds because the cryptocurrency industry is at present dealing with a large number of scams, hacks, and illegal activities.
Hacking well-known influencers’ X accounts to advertise memecoins or altcoins is a recent development in the business. Just previously, following a series of intermittent tweets that worried investors, Dogwifhat’s official account was most likely hacked.
In the same tone, as evidenced by the hackers’ attempt to promote a fake memecoin called $WIZ, Wiz Khalif’s X account was also compromised.
Even EigenLayer, the creator of the Ethereum restaking protocol, saw its twitter account getting hacked a couple of weeks prior. The account’s security breach was discovered when a slew of posts promoting a phony airdrop surfaced. In reality, the tweets were phishing links that encouraged Twitter users to click on a link that led to the Eigen Foundation’s website.
Why Are Crypto Hacks and Scams Rising?
Illicit activities like hacks and scams are becoming more and more common in the crypto world. However, the persistent question remains why?
At present, the rise in these illegal activities coincides with the rise in market traction for the crypto world. As more and more new users jump on the crypto bandwagon, they are more likely to fall prey to such scams and hacks.
The majority of breaches in the industry have been carried out by North Korean hackers. Additionally, North hackers are employing new techniques to perpetrate cryptocurrency fraud.
The long list of ways that hackers in the DPRK have been stealing cryptocurrency has now been expanded to include phishing and virus schemes.
According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), $679 million was lost to cryptocurrency fraud in the first half of 2024. According to reports, losses from investment fraud schemes involving cryptocurrency totaled $3.96 billion in 2023, a 53% increase over 2022.
Scams involving cryptocurrency are growing increasingly complex and common. Convincing an investor to move cryptocurrencies to a new platform, where the fraudster then cultivates trust by posting fictitious high profits, is a typical scam. The scammer freezes the account and demands fees or taxes after the investor has invested a specific amount.