• Steve Aoki’s Twitter account was hacked and a phishing scam was perpetrated using a fake airdrop link for the $PSYOP memecoin.
• Ben.eth unwittingly quote tweeted the post containing the phishing link thinking it was from the real Steve Aoki, leading to roughly $170,000 in losses.
• Ben.eth has promised to refund everyone who lost their Ethereum to the scam and asked victims to reach out via email and confirm they had their funds stolen.
Steve Aoki’s Twitter Account Hacked
On May 26th, on-chain sleuth Zachxbt tweeted that hackers had compromised Steve Aoki’s Twitter account to perpetrate a phishing scam using a fake airdrop link for the $PSYOP memecoin. Ben.eth unwittingly quote tweeted the post containing the phishing link thinking it was from the real Steve Aoki — leading to roughly $170,000 in losses for people exposed to the link.
Ben.eth Vows To Refund Victims
Victims approached Zachxbt after falling prey to the scam, who quickly raised an alarm and alerted Ben.eth who immediately deleted the tweet to stop any further losses. In response, Ben.eth said he was unaware of his friend’s account being hacked and vowed to refund all those who lost their Ethereum due to his unwitting promotion of this malicious activity on social media platform Twitter. He asked victims of this hack to reach out via email and confirm they had their funds stolen so he could process refunds as soon as possible .
Circle Launches Euro Coin on Avalanche
In related news, Circle announced it will launch its own Euro Coin (EURC) stablecoin on blockchain protocol Avalanche later this week with support from European Union banking giant Banco Santander SA which is set up as one of its first liquidity providers for this coin offering . This move follows Circle’s successful launch of USDC earlier this year which now boasts over 300 million usages across platforms such as Coinbase, Bitfinex , Kraken , OKEx , Huobi Global , Bithumb Global , Revolut etc .
Binance Halts Bitcoin Spot Trading with Australian Dollar
In other news coming out today , Binance announced it will halt Bitcoin spot trading with Australian Dollar (AUD) effective June 1st 2021 citing “regulatory pressure” from local financial authorities . This move comes shortly after similar action taken by Coinbase when it halted AUD deposits/withdrawals in April 2021 due same reasons . Binance has assured customers that all existing open orders will be cancelled after June 1st but users can still trade AUD against other cryptocurrencies listed in its platform such as ETH or XRP .
Steve Aoki Not Making Public Statement
So far there have been no public statements from either Steve Aoki or his team regarding this incident although Ben.eth did mention that he has reached out privately via email about reimbursing victims of this hack . Until then however we are still awaiting further updates regarding potential legal ramifications for perpetrators involved in such scams as well as how exactly these funds were able recovered if at all by those affected negatively by them .