Santiago Peña's account is hacked and false post claims that Paraguay has adopted Bitcoin as official currency
On the morning of this Monday (9th), the official profile of the President of Paraguay, Santiago Peña, on the social network X (formerly Twitter), surprised followers by posting a message stating that the country had adopted Bitcoin as legal tender and initiated the formation of a strategic reserve of $5 million in BTC.
The post, which quickly reached nearly 200 thousand views, also indicated the supposed creation of a bond program aimed at citizens who use cryptocurrencies. However, the text also included a Bitcoin wallet address, accompanied by the phrase: “Your investment today will determine the scale of this implementation” — a clear sign of a possible scam attempt.
An analysis conducted by the portal Livecoins showed that the mentioned Bitcoin address had received a single transaction of approximately 0.026 BTC (about R$ 16 thousand), which occurred months before the post. So far, there is no evidence that users have fallen for the scam after the message was released.
Despite being well-written and mentioning the supposed benefits of Bitcoin for the Paraguayan economy, the content was quickly questioned by internet users. Approximately 13 minutes after the post, the official profile of the Presidency of Paraguay issued a statement claiming that Santiago Peña's account may have been subject to unauthorized access.
“We inform that the official account of the President of the Republic on the social network X exhibited irregular activity suggesting possible unauthorized access,” the statement said.
According to the government, the team from the Paraguayan Cyber Incident Response Center (CERTPY) is working with platform X to investigate the situation. The statement also advises the public to disregard any recent posts made on the president's profile until an official position is established.