Ripple CTO warns against XRP scams amid SEC-induced hype

A court ruling in favor of Ripple Labs — stating that XRP (XRP) is not a security — reignited the long-lost hype around the ecosystem. Anticipating an influx of scams as the token rallied, Ripple chief technology officer David Schwartz issued a warning to investors.

A two-year-long legal battle between the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and Ripple partly concluded on July 13, with its XRP token shaking off the “security” label in a decision by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

XRP is not a security.

This victory for @Ripple is a win for the entire industry and a step toward regulatory clarity in the U.S.

A huge thank you to @bgarlinghouse, @chrislarsensf, and @s_alderoty for their leadership and the #XRPCommunity for their continued support.

— Ripple (@Ripple) July 13, 2023

What followed was an organic but substantial spike in XRP’s market price. As shown below, the XRP price rallied over 70% — bringing up its value from $0.47 to $0.82 in a day. The incident also marks the biggest price jump for XRP in the past year.

The hype around cryptocurrencies or crypto ecosystems like nonfungible tokens (NFTs) is when crypto scammers get highly active in trying to dupe unwary investors. Schwartz took to Twitter to warn against the rising XRP scams. He said:

“A lot of scammers are taking advantage of the recent good news to try to cheat and steal. There are no airdrops, giveaways, or special offers associated with this ruling.”

Given its massive popularity and growing community, scammers often imitate Ripple’s official website to promote fake giveaways and airdrops. In such instances, the scammer intends to gain access to the potential victim’s crypto wallets, which would be used to drain existing tokens or siphon stolen funds at a later date.

Related: Ripple, Binance impersonators target XRP holders via fake staking program

In April 2023, YouTube helped recover a creator’s channel with 2.4 million subscribers, which was hacked to promote XRP scams.

so sorry you’re having to deal with this! first, we’ll need to get some quick info from you & then we’ll connect you w/ a specialist team who helps restore account access. follow us & we’ll be able to DM you the info you need!

— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) April 28, 2023

YouTuber DidYouKnowGaming regained access to its account and recovered the deleted videos following a swift intervention from YouTube. The exploit used by the hackers to gain access to YouTube accounts remains a mystery.

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