Are Crypto Influencers About To Be Exposed By A Dying Telegram Hacker?

Could some of the day’s most popular crypto influencers be on the verge of some damning allegations? That’s what a hacker behind an anonymous Twitter account is claiming. The person, who is tweeting from the account @adyingnobody, has some truly damning claims about major crypto influencers. In fact, they’re claiming to have nearly 140 GB of private messages from the app Telegram that serve as evidence of wrongdoing by certain crypto influencers.

So what exactly is this person claiming, and is there anything to back up their claims? What is a crypto influencer in this context, and just how is this person claiming to have gotten access to their private messages on Telegram? Does this mean that Telegram is not safe to use? Let’s unpack what went down.

Anonymous hacker claims they have dirt on popular Crypto Influencers

Right before midnight on June 7th (US EST),  a brand new anonymous Twitter account posted a thread with numerous breathtaking claims about some unspecified crypto influencers.

The person behind the account, @adyingnobody, is someone who says that they are suffering from a terminal illness. As a result, this person says that they are putting out this information so that they can, “disappear… But not before this feeling of guilt is released from me.”

As far as how adyingnobody is claiming to have acquired this information, it all starts with the messaging app Telegram. To that end, the anonymous hacker starts off the thread by claiming to have 137.21GB of Telegram group chats and messages. In addition, these messages allegedly show evidence of serious wrongdoing and even heinous crimes by some popular crypto influencers.

How did the hacker exploit private Telegram messages?

For those who don’t know, Telegram is a widely used app for online messaging akin to WhatsApp and Signal. Significantly the app is hugely popular among people in the Web3 and blockchain worlds. And ironically, that’s largely due to Telegram’s impetus on secure and encrypted end-to-end messaging.

Contrary to an app like Discord – which is popular among NFT communities but gaining a reputation for having poor security standards – people use Telegram because they are confident in its security when it comes to their private messaging. Given that, the thought of a hacker getting access to these crypto influencers this way was that much more alarming to people.

This is how the hacker says they gained access:

“Three years ago, a vulnerability on Telegram was discovered by a colleague of mine. He did not take it to its final outcome. By exploiting this, one could recreate an invite to view the overview page and recent messages of any Telegram group of an individual user… without actually joining said group.”

They go on to say that they wrote a script to download “every message sent to any Telegram group with targeted individuals, you may know some of them as crypto influencers, while others targeted included many investors in the space.”

While the hacker notes that the Telegram team has been notified of this exploit, Telegram tells a completely different story. About half a day after the thread was posted, Telegram’s official Twitter account denied that such a Telegram exploit even exists.

When would this supposed evidence against Crypto Influencers be released?

The person completes their Tweet thread with a timeline. Evidently, this lays out how they plan to release the alleged evidence, and that they would be releasing this information.

Basically, the first sample of excerpts from the Telegram messages would include conversations from different crypto influencers, “ranging from as little as 800 followers to as much as 1M followers”. These damning conversations are allegedly “pertaining to racism and homophobia, of adultery and sexual assault.”

This first info dump on June 15th would apparently also include some wealthy influencers, and those with significant Twitter followings, discussing scam and rug pull projects. Astoundingly, this information would include many scams taking place between December 2019 and February 2022.

Does this would-be whistleblower have evidence of crypto murders?

But without a doubt, the weightiest accusation concerns “killing and stealing the crypto of an individual with a group of friends. While allegations of these kinds of crimes aren’t 100% foreign in the wider blockchain space, this is a different league from the rug pulls and Discord hacks that happen frequently in the NFT space.

The hacker goes on to say that there will be a further release of messages on June 30th. Then, about a week later, all the messages would be fully released on July 7th. If these allegations turn out to be valid, this could lead to a huge reckoning for some notable crypto influencers. Including people who have made both a name and considerable profit for themselves in the space.

What to make of this potential crypto whistleblower

The thread has certainly garnered a lot of attention on NFT Twitter. Even so, it’s important to clarify that the hacker is specifically talking about crypto influencers. To illustrate, they talk about scammers behind “the top 200mcap projects, from yield-farming projects, to stablecoins, to AMM’s all designed from the start to siphon funds from the majority of users.”

Not referencing NFTs might mean that this supposed exposal might not impact the NFT community directly. Having said that, given the wide range of involvement that the hacker is pointing to, it’s not hard to imagine that such a list – if it actually exists – might include some figures in the NFT space.

All things considered, we have to tread lightly when it comes to such claims. While they are certainly bold and worthy of interest, they are unsubstantiated at the present time. Of course, if these claims turn out to be legitimate, then this person is doing a notable service. Namely, shedding light on some horrific and criminal acts. However, we simply don’t have enough information to verify these claims as of now.

Could this all be part of an elaborate crypto scam?

By the same token, some have reacted to the news with major skepticism. Some savvy Twitter users, including the Horde Mother herself, Betty, noted that this could be part of an elaborate scam to get “thousands to download a zip file”.

To be sure, with the prevalence of scams in the crypto space at the moment, it serves to be skeptical of these kinds of things – especially in the interest of securing your assets. Not to mention the above tweet from Telegram suggesting that this is just a hoax.

Although as popular influencer Andrew Wang chimed in, there might be a way to get around that issue. After all, the hacker did say that some vetted people would be able to access samples of the information. What’s more, this would happen ahead of their general release.  If this turns out to be true, this could mitigate concerns of the crypto community around downloading any files.

Needless to say, NFTevening is in the process of contacting the original poster of the thread. We’ll be sure to provide any updates to the story as they become available. And you can find the original Twitter thread here.