Paraguay President's X account was hacked and promoted BTC scam

Paraguay’s presidency said Monday that Santiago Peña’s verified X account was broken into and used to spread a fake message about adopting Bitcoin.

The warning came after a strange post appeared on his profile, claiming the country had made Bitcoin legal tender and was creating a $5 million Bitcoin reserve fund. The message, written in English, had a Spanish-language image attached that falsely appeared to be an official government notice.

The government told the public to ignore anything coming from the account until further notice. Officials said they noticed “irregular activity” that showed signs of “unauthorized entry.” That same morning, the cybersecurity team in Paraguay began working with X’s security department to figure out who got in and how.

Officials connect hack to wider crypto scam wave in Latin America

According to Reuters, the timing of the breach tracks with a growing wave of crypto scams on social media. These types of frauds usually show up in the form of sponsored posts or fake official messages pushing people to invest. The hacker behind Peña’s account followed that same playbook.

The story echoes what happened in Argentina earlier this year, when President Javier Milei promoted a token named Libra on his social media that collapsed almost immediately. That scandal blew up in his face and triggered public backlash, especially after critics accused him of helping to pump a worthless coin.

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele actually did make Bitcoin legal in his country back in 2021 and launched tokenized bonds shortly after. But what happened in Paraguay this week wasn’t real policy—it was a digital trap planted by someone exploiting Peña’s account.

This isn’t Paraguay’s first brush with hackers. In May, the communications ministry tracked at least 18 attacks on over a dozen public agencies, including the civil aviation regulator and justice ministry. Those hacks targeted email systems, cloud platforms, and login credentials, and no official link to Peña’s breach has been confirmed.

As of now, Peña hasn’t made any public statements, and the fake post has been deleted. No arrests or leads have been announced.

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