A crypto scam immediately latched on to Musk’s new ‘X’ rebrand for Twitter
Cryptocurrency pushers are already taking advantage of the rebranding this week that saw Twitter morph into "X."
As part of Twitter owner Elon Musk's plan to turn the platform into an "everything app," the blue bird was replaced by the letter X on Sunday in what can only be described as a haphazard transition.
Linda Yaccarino, who was hired by Musk last month to be the company's CEO, said in a tweet that X will work to "incorporate audio, video, messaging, payments and banking."
While many online immediately protested the change, devoted supporters of Musk celebrated the move as nothing less than a stroke of genius. But cryptocurrency accounts appear to have seen the announcement as a way to cash in on Musk's fan base.
A Twitter Blue subscriber using the new X logo as its profile picture announced the launch of a new cryptocurrency on Monday in an apparent effort to look like a legitimate representative of the company.
"What's happening?! We have launched our coin airdrop, be one of the first to get your X coins!" the account tweeted. "Visit https://x-erc20.com. Stay tuned for more updates!"
The account immediately set the tweet to block any and all replies, keeping users from either questioning or criticizing the post.
Even more suspiciously, the tweet somehow managed to rack up well over 107,000 shares while only garnering around 30 likes. Examination of numerous accounts that retweeted the post appeared to show heavy promotion from bots. Many of the accounts were recently created, had no followers, and only seemed to amplify tweets regarding questionable cryptocurrency offerings.
The account was ultimately suspended, but not before receiving widespread attention from Musk's critics.
"LMAO," one user wrote. "The brand's been launched for a few hours and there's already a crypto scam using its IP. It's all very Muskian."
Although the Twitter account has been removed, the website for the cryptocurrency remains online. Domain records viewed by the Daily Dot show that the website was registered shortly after Musk's announcement.
Users of the site are asked to link their cryptocurrency wallets in order to verify their "eligibility" to receive the X coin. It remains unclear whether anyone has signed up or if the "X" coin is real.
The incident is just the latest in a long line of embarrassments since Musk's takeover of Twitter, which included the seemingly broken promise that users would see fewer bots on the platform.
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