Popular Crypto X Account Watcher.Guru Hacked – Is It Spreading Fake XRP News?

The widely followed crypto news outlet Watcher.Guru has confirmed that its official X account was hacked after a fake post about a potential deal between Ripple and SWIFT spread across its social media channels, potentially affecting interest in XRP.

The breach occurred on March 21 around 2:05 AM UTC, when an unauthorized post claimed that SWIFT was close to finalizing a deal with Ripple to use XRP for cross-border payments.

Watcher.Guru promptly deleted the post and issued a statement clarifying that the claim was false and not made by its editorial team.

“Our X account has been hacked,” the outlet stated in a follow-up post. “We have 2FA enabled and have taken extreme measures to avoid hacks.”

Watcher.Guru Hack Triggers Spread of Fake XRP News

Despite these precautions, the breach led to the automatic reposting of the false information across Watcher.Guru’s Telegram, Facebook, and Discord channels due to a cross-platform content bot.

The platform’s team is currently working with X support to investigate the source of the attack and prevent further incidents.

They suspect the breach may be linked to a suspicious link shared in their Telegram group on March 5.

The message contained an unusual “token” query string in the link, which raised suspicion in hindsight.

The team attempted to alert X’s head of cybersecurity, @cstanley, but received no response.

We did not think much of it since it was an official link, but sent a message to X's head of Cyber Security @cstanley just in case. However, we did not receive a response: pic.twitter.com/Yt7rJHgqWg

— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) March 21, 2025

It remains unclear whether the malicious link and the hack are directly connected.

However, Watcher.Guru noted that a similar exploit had previously affected another crypto news outlet, DB News, suggesting a broader pattern of targeted attacks against prominent crypto media accounts—even those protected by two-factor authentication.

At the time of reporting, Watcher.Guru has not determined the exact method used in the breach but reassured followers that all unauthorized content has been removed and the account is now secure.

They also pledged to release further updates once more information is available.

Crypto Social Media Hacks on the Rise as Meme Coin Pump-and-Dump Schemes Spread

The incident highlights a broader trend of crypto-focused social media hacks, many of which are used to pump newly launched meme coins.

In February, Dior’s Instagram account was hijacked to promote a fake Solana-based token, which briefly reached a $280,000 market cap before plummeting 90%.

Last week, Kaito AI, an artificial intelligence-driven platform providing crypto market analysis, and its founder, Yu Hu, were also targeted in a social media hack on X.

Hackers took control of the account and falsely claimed that Kaito AI’s wallets had been compromised, warning users that their funds were at risk.

In February 2025, losses in the crypto ecosystem increased by 20x month-over-month compared with January 2025, according to the latest report by major blockchain security platform Immunefi.

In January, registered losses stood at $73,915,700. Just a month later, this figure jumped to $1,528,342,400. The latter was the result of nine hacks.

Additionally, the February number is an 18x increase from the same time a year prior. In February 2024, registered losses were $81,603,400.