Twitter is now restricting posts that contain cryptocurrency addresses

Quick Take

  • Twitter appears to have disabled the ability to share strings of numbers and letters on its site following a wide-spread attack Wednesday
  • That attack resulted in the posting of bitcoin giveaway scams from accounts owned by major figures like Joe Biden and Bill Gates, among many others
  • At the time of publication, tests conducted by The Block Research show litecoin, XRP, monero, bitcoin and ethereuem addresses are unable to be shared

Twitter appears to have disabled the ability to share strings of numbers and letters on its site following a wide-spread attack Wednesday that resulted in the posting of bitcoin giveaway scams from accounts owned by major figures like Joe Biden and Bill Gates, among many others.

The move is likely aimed at preventing would-be fraudsters from sharing cryptocurrency addresses — made up of a random string of letters and numbers — in a bid to solicit cryptocurrency from victims. Wednesday's breach resulted in Twitter users sending more than $100,000 to the same bitcoin address shared by compromised accounts, all of which promised outside rewards for those who sent funds.

At the time of publication, tests conducted by The Block Research show litecoin, XRP, monero, bitcoin and ethereuem addresses are unable to be shared.

 

Trying to share such an address populates the following message:

“This request looks like it might be automated. To protect our users from spam and other malicious activity, we can’t complete this action right now. Please try again later.”

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Indeed, at least one popular account known for sharing address information — WhaleAlerts — has now said that it can't post its messages to Twitter.

As previously reported, Twitter has blamed a "coordinated social engineering attack" on yesterday's platform crisis, pursued by attackers "who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools."

"We know they used this access to take control of many highly-visible (including verified) accounts and Tweet on their behalf. We’re looking into what other malicious activity they may have conducted or information they may have accessed and will share more here as we have it," the company's support account explained late Wednesday.

The Block has reached out to Twitter about the inability to post crypto addresses and will update this piece if they provide more information.  


© 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

About Author

Frank Chaparro is Host of The Scoop podcast and Director of Special Projects. He also writes a biweekly newsletter. Chaparro started his career at Business Insider, where he specialized in the intersection of digital assets and Wall Street, market structure, and financial technology. Soon after joining Business Insider out of Fordham University, Chaparro was interviewing top finance and tech executives, including billionaire Mark Cuban, “Flash Boys” star Brad Katsuyama, Cboe Global Markets CEO Ed Tilly, and New York Stock Exchange President Tom Farley. In 2018, he become a sought after reporter in the crypto world, interviewing luminaries such as Tyler Winklevoss, the cofounder of Gemini, Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of Circle, and Fundstrat head Tom Lee. For inquiries or tips, email [email protected].