The X accounts of ZKsync and Matter Labs were hacked, with attackers apparently trying to undermine the ZK token by falsely claiming that U.S. authorities are investigating the platform.

The X accounts of ZKsync, the Ethereum Layer 2 network, and its developer Matter Labs were hacked in the early hours of May 13, with hackers falsely claiming that the network is under investigation by U.S. authorities among other scam information.

On May 13, an X account related to ZKsync posted a message confirming that the accounts of ZKsync and Matter Labs had been compromised, warning users not to interact with these accounts, as they shared links to fake airdrops in an obvious phishing scam.

ZKsync and Matter Labs, which were attacked by hackers, subsequently released a false statement claiming that ZKsync is under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and that the U.S. Treasury may impose sanctions on the platform.

Matter Labs' communications director Lynnette Nolan confirmed to Cointelegraph that the now-deleted X posts were 'illegitimate' and that the two accounts are now 'completely back under the team's control.'

Harrison Leggio, co-founder of the cryptocurrency startup g8keep and known as 'Pop Punk' online, posted on X: 'Hats off to the ZKsync hackers. They didn’t throw tokens to steal a few bucks but chose to scare those perverts on-chain.'

The false statement seems aimed at driving down the price of the platform's namesake token ZKsync, which is at $0.07133 according to CoinGecko. Following the leak on X accounts, the currency dropped about 2% in the past hour.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has previously investigated cryptocurrency companies, many of which choose to publicly disclose information when under investigation by regulatory agencies.

Under the Trump administration, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has halted multiple investigations, including those involving companies like Crypto.com, Immutable, OpenSea, and RobinHood Crypto, which confirmed that the agency has ended its investigations.

ZK has dropped 6.4% in the past day, trading at around 7 cents, retreating from a nearly 38.5% increase over the past week.

Nolan from Matter Labs stated that the company is investigating how the X accounts were compromised, believing it was done through 'compromised delegated accounts' that allow users limited access to the X accounts and enable them to post on behalf of those accounts.

Two hacker attacks occurred within a few short months.

This is the second time since April that the ZKsync control platform has been breached.

On April 15, attackers breached the administrative accounts of the ZKsync airdrop distribution contract and used a function to mint 111 million unclaimed ZK tokens, which were worth about $5 million at the time.

The hacker attack occurred as the platform was distributing 17.5% of the ZK supply to ecosystem participants.

The attackers subsequently returned 90% of the stolen tokens and agreed to keep 10% as a bounty.