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A recent social media post by President Santiago Peña announcing the enactment of bitcoin as Paraguay’s legal tender, shook the crypto community. Nonetheless, this turned out to be a scheme by attackers who gained control of the account and tried to take advantage.
Attackers Compromise Paraguay’s President X Account, Announce Bitcoin as Legal Tender
Paraguay became the center of the crypto world on Monday, when President Santiago Peña took to social media to make an announcement that shook -and confused- the community. In a now-deleted post, Peña stated that the country had enacted bitcoin as legal tender and established a bitcoin reserve of $5 million.
In the post, Peña allegedly declared that he had signed a law making bitcoin legal tender “rooted in an unbreakable compromise with the financial innovation, economic sovereignty, and inclusive growth.”
In a strange tone, a statement also referred to a series of bonds that would be issued by the Paraguayan Treasury, inviting investors to secure their stake by sending funds to a bitcoin address.
This last message put the crypto community on alert, hinting at the possibility of Peña’s account being compromised by attackers.
It turns out that it was right. The Paraguayan Presidency swiftly issued an answer, revealing that Peña’s account had experienced irregular activity suggesting unauthorized access, asking Paraguayans to reject any content published until further notice.
After regaining control of his account, Peña thanked Paraguay’s Cyber Incident Response Team and X for the quick response to this incident. “Cybersecurity is key, and these events show us that we must all contribute to building a secure, trustworthy, and resilient digital ecosystem,” he assessed.
After going through the trouble of hijacking Peña’s account, the unidentified attackers were unsuccessful in profiting from this attack. The BTC address that was shared as part of the bond scheme did not receive any deposits, rendering this incident a failure for their purposes.
This might be because, while Paraguay has a vibrant bitcoin mining industry due to its hydroelectric resources, it has never hinted at implementing any of the bitcoin strategies announced by the attackers.
Read more: Alert: Bitcoin Mining Could Collapse Paraguay’s Power Grid by 2029