Arbitrum Issues Urgent Warning After Official X Account Compromised
Arbitrum has issued an pressing safety alert after its ArbitrumDAO governance X account was compromised, with attackers posting phishing links disguised as airdrop promotions.
The breach joins a relentless wave of social media takeovers focusing on main crypto tasks in early 2026.
The compromised account directed followers to a fraudulent hyperlink at gov-arbitrum[dot]com, claiming a confirmed “snapshot” would reward long-term individuals for bridging, swapping, and governance exercise.
Arbitrum’s official channels instantly urged the neighborhood to keep away from all posts and interactions from the account till full entry is restored.
SECURITY ALERT
The @arbitrumdao_gov account has been compromised. Do not click on any hyperlinks or work together with posts from that account till additional discover.
We are working to recuperate entry. Updates to comply with.— Arbitrum (@arbitrum) February 3, 2026
Fake Airdrop Bait and the Anatomy of the Attack
The posts framed eligibility as unique to “actual customers,” separating long-term individuals from “farmers” and “opportunists,” whereas reassuring latecomers that “this isn’t the top of airdrop season.“
The language carefully mimicked reliable venture communications, making the phishing hyperlink particularly harmful for lively ecosystem members.
McKenna, managing companion at Arete Capital, has been on the entrance strains of those breaches.
“I believe I’ve helped round 5-7 folks with X account hacks over the past month together with Plasma and now Arbitrum,” he said, including that the connection he made at X, following North Korean hacking his account, helps in these situations.
His advice was pointed: “Please make sure you use a password supervisor with bodily YubiKeys to safe all the things. Don’t wait, do it at this time.”
This newest account takeover comes as North Korean hackers have pushed cumulative crypto theft to $6.75 billion, private pockets compromises have surged to 158,000 incidents in 2025, tripling the 2022 determine.
In reality, as reported by Cryptonews, pockets drainer losses, regardless of falling 83% to $84 million, stay a persistent risk.
High-Profile Crypto Accounts Breached Across Platforms
The Arbitrum hack follows a string of devastating compromises throughout the business.
Scroll co-founder Ye Chen’s X account was hijacked in January, with attackers reshaping his profile to imitate X’s official branding and flooding his intensive community of crypto executives and builders with phishing messages disguised as copyright violation warnings.
BNB Chain’s official account was also breached in October, prompting Binance co-founder CZ to warn followers to “Please don’t click on on any hyperlinks just lately posted from this account.“
Binance co-CEO Yi He’s WeChat account was individually hijacked in December, with attackers executing a pump-and-dump on the meme token MUBARA that netted roughly $55,000 earlier than retail patrons had been left uncovered to a pointy value reversal.
ZKsync and Matter Labs had been breached through delegated accounts, with attackers posting pretend claims of an SEC investigation that despatched ZK’s value down 5% regardless of a previous 38.5% weekly rally.
Watcher.Guru fell separately after pretend Ripple-SWIFT partnership claims unfold throughout Telegram, Discord, and Facebook through automated content material bots.
Phishing Dominates as 2026 Opens With Record Losses
These assaults are unfolding towards historic crypto crime ranges, with the U.S. Marshals Service additionally confirming an investigation right into a hack of federal digital-asset accounts.
TRM Labs reported $158 billion in illicit crypto activity in 2025, up 145% year-over-year, whereas Chainalysis documented over $3.4 billion in outright theft, with North Korean state hackers accountable for $2.02 billion.
2026 began even worse, with CertiK confirming roughly $370.3 million lost to exploits in January alone.
Phishing accounted for $311.3 million of that whole, dwarfing the $51.5 million attributed to code vulnerabilities, as IPOR Labs’ $336,000 Arbitrum vault exploit compounded the harm.
A $282 million hardware wallet social engineering theft additionally set a brand new particular person report, with the attacker changing stolen Bitcoin and Litecoin into Monero to obscure the path.
Phishing has been a selected downside, with a December sufferer dropping $50 million to address poisoning, whereas a separate $3.05 million USDT theft stemmed from signing a malicious transaction.
Beyond particular person targets, hijacked YouTube accounts netted attackers over $939,000 by way of pretend buying and selling bot promotions. Even worse, Betterment users received phishing notifications promising to triple their Bitcoin and Ethereum deposits.
— Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews) February 1, 2026
February additionally began with an enormous hack, with Step Finance confirming multiple breaches of treasury and price wallets that resulted in $30 million stolen.
The publish Arbitrum Issues Urgent Warning After Official X Account Compromised appeared first on Cryptonews.
