Paraguay Says Presidential X Post Promising Bitcoin Reserve a Hack

The Paraguayan government dismissed a post on the X account of President Santiago Pena saying the country had made Bitcoin legal tender as a hack. 

Peña’s account also falsely claimed that the country had started a $5 million reserve. The tweet contained a Bitcoin address and urged would-be investors to “secure your stake” in the project. 

But the Paraguayan government less than one hour later posted: “The president’s official account on social media network X has irregular activity which suggests possible unauthorized use.” 

Decrypt reached out to the government’s press office for additional comment.. 

Cyber criminals sometimes target high-profile social media accounts to disseminate false announcements promising investors huge returns by trying to trick investors into sending their digital coins to a crypto address. 

In other cases, hackers try to con people to buy into a coin that the hackers typically own a significant share of, and then they dump their tokens, crashing the price in the process as they cash out.

Hackers in September took over the Indian Supreme Court’s YouTube channel Friday to broadcast ads shilling the cryptocurrency XRP. 

Before that, cybercrooks hacked X accounts of film director Oliver Stone, Yahoo News UK, and Brazilian soccer player Neymar Jr., among others, to promote a meme coin. 

One of the biggest such hacks happened in 2020, when hackers took control of X accounts run by former U.S. President Barack Obama, ex-President Joe Biden, Apple, Uber, Kanye West, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates as part of a Bitcoin-related scam. 

El Salvador is the only country in the region to have made Bitcoin legal tender. Its government also buys the cryptocurrency for its coffers, despite the International Monetary Fund telling it to withdraw its Bitcoin law. 

Still, Paraguay has developed a reputation as Bitcoin-friendly: Crypto mining operations have opened there, and President Peña previously said he wants the country to be a tech hub.

Edited by James Rubin