MicroStrategy’s X Account Hacked, Over $440,000 Estimated Stolen Via Fake $MSTR Airdrop Links

The acronym MSTR represents MicroStrategy in the stock market arena.

Written by Radhika Parashar, Edited by Siddharth Suvarna | Updated: 26 February 2024 11:51 IST

MicroStrategy’s X Account Hacked, Over $440,000 Estimated Stolen Via Fake $MSTR Airdrop Links

Photo Credit: Pexels/ Tima Miroshnichenko

Hackers have already managed to steal around over $440,000 via this scam

Highlights

The wallet address that is linked to the scam belongs to PinkDrainer
An official response from MicroStrategy on the incident remains awaited
Crypto community has been advised to excercise caution

MicroStrategy, a pro-Bitcoin business intelligence firm, is not airdropping any crypto token represented as MSTR. In the early hours of Monday, February 26, the X account of MicroStrategy was reportedly hacked by notorious scammers. The account, with over 196,000 followers, found itself flooded with posts showing links where people could click and register for the airdrop of Ethereum-based ‘so-called official' MSTR token. The acronym MSTR represents MicroStrategy in the stock market arena. Micheal Saylor, the founder and CEO of the platform has not reacted to the development so far.

The malicious links that were posted via the hacked MicroStrategy X account redirected clickers to a fake website that prompted them to connect their wallets and claim the false MSTR tokens. An unidentified number of people interacted with these links a few hours before thehack was detected.

there was a second best after all

(hacked acc if not obvious lol) pic.twitter.com/cdLqbqiiCO
— Spreek (@spreekaway) February 26, 2024

Market analysers like Scam Sniffer and ZachXBT estimate that this scam has already managed to steal around over $440,000 (roughly Rs. 3.6 crore). The exact figure of the stolen amount remains unclear as for now.

0xe7645b8672b28a17dd0d650a5bf89539c9aa28da

~$440K stolen from the compromise so far
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) February 26, 2024

someone lost $424,786 worth of $wBAI, $wPOKT, and $CHEX to phishing scams about 5 minutes ago. pic.twitter.com/GEJvHEXuM7
— Scam Sniffer | Web3 Anti-Scam (@realScamSniffer) February 26, 2024

As per a CoinTelegraph report, the wallet address that is linked to the scam belongs to PinkDrainer – an infamous hacking group. An official response from MicroStrategy on the incident remains awaited. An investigation into the case is likely on the cards but whether or not the stolen funds are recovered – that remains to be seen.

Time and again crypto industry experts have urged the community members to be very cautions before interacting with suspicious links and random airdrops. Most MicroStrategy followers would know that the company is inclined towards Bitcoin and hence an airdrop of Ethereum-based tokens from the firm should have been identified as shady.

As per a recent PeckShield report, there were over 600 crypto hacks in 2023 that led to the loss of $2.61 billion (roughly Rs. 21,696 crore) -- despite the number of crypto hacks having dipped by 27.78 percent in 2023 in the backdrop of rules and regulations being gradually deployed.

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Further reading: Cryptocurrency, Michael Saylor, MicroStrategy, X Hack

Radhika Parashar

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Radhika Parashar is a senior correspondent for Gadgets 360. She has been reporting on tech and telecom for the last three years now and will be focussing on writing about all things crypto. Besides this, she is a major sitcom nerd and often replies in Chandler Bing and Michael Scott references. For tips or queries you could reach out to her at RadhikaP@ndtv.com. More