The official Watcher Guru X (Twitter) account was hacked on March 21, with the attacker publishing a false announcement claiming that SWIFT and Ripple had partnered to use XRP for global payments. The timing of the hack—just two days after the SEC dropped its appeal against Ripple—raised eyebrows, and the message was quickly deleted, but not before it went viral.
How the Fake SWIFT-XRP News Spread
- At 2:05 AM UTC, a “JUST IN”-style post was published from Watcher Guru’s compromised account, claiming billions of XRP were locked in escrow to support a SWIFT-Ripple partnership.
- The post triggered Watcher’s automated bot network, which instantly reposted the message across Telegram, Discord, and Facebook.
- The message was taken down minutes later, but the damage was done.
Fake Link and Social Engineering Tactics Used in Hack
- On March 5, Watcher Guru received a Telegram message containing a disguised x.com link.
- The link appeared to point to a legitimate post but was from an X developer staging environment, with a suspicious token string at the end.
- The Watcher team attempted to contact X’s cybersecurity head @cstanley, but received no response.
The Hacker’s Strategy: Sophisticated and Timed
- The attacker blocked Ripple’s official account and Brad Garlinghouse from Watcher Guru’s X account to prevent a quick public denial.
- They mimicked Watcher’s posting style, used a fake but convincing link, and exploited auto-posting bots to amplify the reach.
- The coincidence of the attack with XRP’s legal and market milestones suggests the hacker aimed to exploit momentum for market manipulation.
XRP’s Real News: SEC Drops Appeal, Ripple Fights On
- On March 19, the SEC dropped its appeal in the Ripple lawsuit, ending a four-year legal battle.
- XRP surged 11% to $2.52 on CoinGecko following the announcement.
- Ripple is now challenging the $125 million fine and seeking to overturn the remaining ruling that classifies institutional XRP sales as securities.
Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple’s CEO, said in a Bloomberg interview:
“We’ve spent over $150 million defending this case, not just for us, but for the entire industry.”
“The SEC’s campaign of control through lawsuits is over.”
What’s Next for XRP? ETF and U.S. Crypto Stockpile?
- Garlinghouse expects an XRP ETF to launch in 2025, alongside XRP’s inclusion in the U.S. crypto stockpile under Trump’s strategic reserve plan.
- Trump’s administration has floated the idea of a multi-asset crypto reserve, with XRP potentially joining BTC, ETH, SOL, and ADA.
Rising Threat of Political Crypto Hacks
- This is Watcher Guru’s second major incident, and comes weeks after a similar attack on @tier10k.
- With crypto regulation becoming a central political issue, sophisticated hacks timed around major policy events could become more common.
- Despite having 2FA enabled and no compromised API tokens, Watcher Guru’s team is still investigating the breach and awaiting response from X’s cybersecurity team.
Hidden Insight
This hack signals a new phase of politically driven crypto misinformation campaigns, where sophisticated actors use coordinated timing and bot networks to manipulate sentiment and markets. As crypto intersects with national policy, such attacks may intensify ahead of major events like ETF approvals and elections.