Vitalik Buterin

2018-10-03

Fake Instagram account @buterin_vitalik with 24,000 followers collects 37.491 ETH (~$7,500 at the time) via a fake giveaway directing victims through a Telegram bot.

2020-07-10

CoinDesk reports that crypto giveaway scams impersonating Buterin and other figures are flourishing on YouTube, constituting an established multi-year threat vector.

2022-01-04

A fraudulent Instagram account using the handle @vitalik.eth accumulates over 570,000 followers and runs sponsored paid advertisements to promote staking scams.

2022-02-18

Group-IB documents 36 fabricated YouTube giveaway livestreams using Buterin footage over a 48-hour window; scammer wallets receive over $1.6 million in 281 transactions from more than 165,000 viewers.

2022-08-15

Vitalik Buterin publicly warns via his Twitter account that all 5,000+ Instagram accounts claiming to be him are fake and constitute scams.

2022-01-01

Attacker compromises verified journalist Aaron Goldfarb's Twitter account, redesigns it to impersonate Vitalik Buterin, and uses it to launch phishing campaigns targeting followers.

2023-09-09

Attacker SIM-swaps Buterin's T-Mobile number, resets his X account password, and posts a phishing link for a fake 'Proto-Danksharding commemorative NFT.' ZachXBT tracks losses reaching ~$691,000, including CryptoPunk #3983 (~$244,000). Attack wallet is linked to Pink Drainer.

2023-09-12

Buterin confirms publicly via Farcaster that the attack was a SIM swap via T-Mobile, and advises users to remove phone numbers from X account settings.

2024-02-07

CertiK discloses a deepfake video falsely depicting Buterin endorsing a wallet-drainer phishing site, marking an escalation from text-based impersonation to synthetic AI-generated video.

2024-08-01

Buterin publicly highlights the threat of AI deepfakes to identity verification, noting the increasing difficulty of distinguishing authentic from synthetic video content.

2025-01-01

Reports indicate AI-generated deepfake impersonation videos of Buterin and other crypto figures surged 500 percent year-on-year, with $5 million attributed to deepfake crypto scam operations in Q2 2024 alone.