At 2:05 AM UTC on March 21, Watcher Guru’s X account posted a fake update claiming SWIFT was finalizing a deal with Ripple to use XRP for global payments. The post said billions of XRP were locked in escrow to support this so-called partnership. The post was deleted within minutes, but not before it spread across Telegram, Discord, and Facebook through Watcher’s automated bot system. Shortly after, Watcher Guru explained what happened in a detailed thread on X. “Our X account was hacked today,” the post said . They confirmed they had already flagged suspicious behavior two weeks earlier and had contacted X’s cybersecurity team. But no one from the company responded. Attacker used Telegram link that mimicked official X domain On March 5, Watcher Guru received a message on Telegram. The person sent them a working x.com link that pointed to one of their older posts. But the team noticed something was off. The link looked legit, but it was from an X Developer staging site. It had a weird token string at the end—something not seen in standard X links. Even though the link used X’s actual domain, the team suspected something shady was going on. So they reached out to @cstanley, who is X’s head of cybersecurity. But they never got a reply. Then on March 21, just after 2 AM UTC, the fake post hit their feed. The message was written in a way that matched their usual “JUST IN” style alerts. That triggered their auto-posting system, which pushed it to all their other social media channels instantly. The message got maximum reach before it was taken down. Watcher Guru deleted the post within minutes, logged all devices out of their account, and changed passwords. But by then, the fake SWIFT-XRP story had already gone viral. According to their thread, the hack didn’t involve any connected apps or used API tokens. “We had 2FA enabled, no connected apps, and none of our API tokens were used to post it,” the account stated. They still haven’t confirmed how the hacker got access. They also noticed something else. The attacker blocked @Ripple and @bgarlinghouse from the Watcher Guru X account. This move was probably made to delay any public denial from Brad Garlinghouse or the company. Fake post dropped less than two days after SEC dropped XRP appeal This breach came less than 48 hours after a major legal development for Ripple. On March 19, the SEC decided to end its appeal in its case against Ripple. That legal fight had been going on since December 2020. While the SEC is no longer appealing, Ripple is still pushing back on part of the ruling and the $125 million fine. Ripple’s legal team is now trying to overturn the part that says institutional XRP sales must be treated as securities. That section of the ruling from Judge Analisa Torres in August 2023 hasn’t changed. She said XRP is not a security when it’s traded on crypto exchanges, but sales to institutional investors still fall under securities laws. After the SEC pulled out of the case, XRP jumped 11%, hitting $2.52 on CoinGecko. Brad gave an interview to Bloomberg right after the news dropped. “The SEC has abandoned their appeal. That means we go from being the defendant to the plaintiff,” he said. Ripple’s not just closing the case and moving on. They’re going after the ruling that still classifies some of their XRP sales as securities. Brad said they aren’t accepting the fine either. “There was no investor harm, no money lost, so why are we even here?” he asked. Brad also said they’ve spent more than $150 million on this legal fight. “We’ve spent over $150 million defending this case, not just for us, but for the entire industry,” he told Bloomberg. He said Gary Gensler’s SEC was trying to push control over the crypto industry by filing lawsuits. “The SEC wanted to push its power over crypto through lawsuits. That’s over now,” he said. Ripple eyes XRP ETF and U.S. crypto stockpile under Trump Brad said the timing of the SEC’s decision isn’t a coincidence. He pointed to the new administration under Donald Trump and changes in the SEC’s leadership. According to him, that’s what triggered the retreat. “I think if you asked Paul Atkins and David Sacks, they’d agree this case never should have been brought,” he said. Paul Atkins is now set to face the Senate Banking Committee on March 27. That’s where he’ll go through confirmation to become the next SEC chairman. If confirmed, he’ll take over from Mark Uyeda, who’s been acting chair since January. Atkins already served on the SEC from 2002 to 2008. After that, he launched a consulting firm called Patomak Global Partners in Washington, D.C. On top of that, he’s been into Bitcoin since 2011. He knows how the SEC works, and he’s expected to pull back on enforcement and push to let more private companies go public. Brad’s looking ahead. He believes XRP will be added to the U.S. crypto stockpile and says an XRP ETF will launch this year. He also mentioned Trump’s latest crypto push during the Bloomberg interview. “President Trump posted something saying there should be other tokens, that there’s going to be a Bitcoin strategic reserve and then a crypto stockpile that would include things like XRP,” Brad said. That statement came just as the SEC dropped its appeal, Watcher Guru’s account got hacked, and XRP’s price jumped. All within two days. Everything lined up. The fake SWIFT-XRP post came right when XRP was trending from real legal news. The hacker knew exactly what they were doing. They used a fake link that mimicked X’s own system. They posted a believable message in Watcher Guru’s voice. They took advantage of auto-posting bots to spread the lie. They even blocked Ripple to slow down any denial. Watcher Guru has now removed all fake content, changed account settings, and locked everything down. But they’re still waiting to hear back from X. No one has confirmed the exact method of the breach, and the account was already protected by two-factor authentication. This is the second attack of its kind in weeks. The same thing reportedly happened to @tier10k. And now, with crypto politics heating up, don’t be surprised if this kind of attack becomes the norm. Cryptopolitan Academy: Tired of market swings? Learn how DeFi can help you build steady passive income. Register Now
