Reports have emerged that hackers compromised the X account of the newly-established Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.) co-lead Vivek Ramaswamy.
The attack led to a whirlwind of misinformation and market frenzy surrounding the four-month-old USUAL stablecoin project.
False Claims Propel Market Activity
It started with a now-deleted post initially thought to be from Ramaswamy, announcing a “strategic partnership” with USUAL that would leverage cryptocurrency to help reduce the federal government’s fiscal deficit.
“By integrating innovative financial solutions and enhancing the efficiency of governmental transactions, we believe that this partnership will not only promote fiscal responsibility but also foster greater financial inclusion,” the post said.
However, more than 40,000 views later, the tweet was removed, with prominent fund manager James Fishback claiming that he had spoken with Ramaswamy, who informed him that he had been hacked. “He is locked out of his account. This is a scam,” Fishback clarified, referring to the post.
Nonetheless, the false announcement seemed to have achieved its purpose, with its namedropping of USUAL causing the project’s governance token to spike dramatically. Data from CoinGecko shows that the cryptocurrency surged to an all-time high (ATH) of $1.61 soon after the fake Vivek post went live, pushing its market cap to nearly $745 million.
At the time of this writing, it had retraced back to $1.48, which, while 8.4% below the ATH, was still a 29.3% improvement over 24 hours. Additionally, the token saw a spike in trading volume, recording $1.7 billion worth of transactions since yesterday.
The uptick also came in the wake of USUAL’s stablecoin, Usual USD (USD0), breaching the billion-dollar mark to attain a $1.2 billion market cap. The jump was triggered by the issuer’s announcement that it would diversify the asset’s reserves to include a couple of new virtual currencies, including Ethena’s USDtb and UsualM, an extension of the $M stablecoin.
DOGE Initiative Draws Crypto Community Attention
The Ramaswamy hack has cast a spotlight on D.O.G.E., an initiative the biotech entrepreneur steers alongside Tesla CEO Elon Musk. While the project’s stated mission is to cut bureaucratic red tape and optimize federal spending, its acronym and association with Musk have fueled speculation within the crypto community about potential involvement with digital currencies.
The X owner is a well-known supporter of Dogecoin (DOGE), and several of his past pronouncements have led to sharp spikes in the meme coin’s price, a factor that may have played into the hands of the suspected hacker had they been looking to benefit from a rise in USUAL’s value.
At the time of going to press, Ramaswamy had not made any statement regarding the alleged breach.
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