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- A new scam has emerged in which fraudsters pose as the operators of an XRP wallet belonging to the US Treasury.
- It’s the latest scam to emerge around Trump’s inauguration as interest in the crypto market surges.
Since Donald Trump won the presidency, crypto scammers have been on the prowl, and the latest one has the fraudsters posing as the operators of an XRP wallet purportedly controlled by the US Treasury.
Like many others, the scam was amplified via social media, with X as the main culprit. The scammers transacted with other wallets whose owners were dubbed Bank of America and World Liberty Financial, the DeFi platform founded by the Trump family. Some unsuspecting crypto influencers fell for the scam and touted it on X.
Zach Rynes, a community liaison for Chainlink, called the scam out on X, describing it as a result of the “rampant misinformation problem in the XRP community.”
He further revealed that blockchain analysis had shown that the wallet address was opened by people residing in the Philippines and that it was issuing fake tokens linked to BlackRock, JP Morgan, Bank of America, and other reputable financial institutions.
“…hard to know what the solution here is, such misinformation seems to just be an artifact of certain communities on social media, they just want it to be true too much,” Rynes stated, adding, “…how do people actually fall for this stuff?”
But to understand why people still fall for these schemes, it’s important to note that the scammers don’t target seasoned players like Rynes. Rather, their target audience is the new investors who are just learning about crypto, and in a bull market like this year’s, there are millions. One survey found that when Trump launched his viral TRUMP memecoin, over 40% of the purchasers were first-time crypto investors, proving how much FOMO and excitement there is in the market.
XRP Sets the Pace
The latest scam chose XRP as the crypto to target, owing to the token’s parabolic rise since the turn of the year, where it has gained over 50%. XRP has gained 16% in the past week alone, with Solana the only crypto in the top ten that has done better.
XRP trades at $3.2 at press time, gaining just over 2.3% in the past day despite a 55% dip in the trading volume, which hit the broader crypto market.
Investors remain bullish on XRP, with the token recording $41.2 million in net inflows last week according to CoinShares data. This makes it the second-highest in the sector after Bitcoin, nearly three times higher than Solana. The inflows were even more impressive considering that Ethereum saw $255 million in net outflows.
Analysts expect XRP to keep gaining, with the next bullish target set at $4.4. Tailwinds include the expected approval of a spot ETF, the looming resolution of the SEC case, and a market shift from Ethereum to more exciting cryptos like XRP.
