Paraguay warns of ‘irregular activity’ after post claiming BTC is legal tender
An X post by Paraguay’s President Santiago Peña claimed the country had recognized Bitcoin as legal tender, but the official government account soon urged users to “dismiss any recently published content.”
The office of Paraguayan President Santiago Peña appeared to deny a post on the social media platform X that announced the country would begin recognizing Bitcoin as legal tender.
In a Monday post on X, the official account of the office of Paraguay’s president asked followers to “dismiss any recently published content” without official confirmation from his office.
The post was made minutes after Peña’s personal account on X announced (in English) that Paraguay had made Bitcoin (BTC) legal tender, and established a BTC reserve worth $5 million, also providing a wallet address for investors to “secure [their] stake.”
At the time of publication, Peña’s personal post had been removed, while the government post was still live on the platform. The president’s office said it was working with the social media platform to “clarify the situation” and for the public to only consider information issued through official channels.
The X post came as some countries in Central and South America were reportedly considering following El Salvador’s example by adopting Bitcoin as a reserve asset. Pushed by President Nayib Bukele, El Salvador began recognizing cryptocurrency as legal tender in 2021, though its status is somewhat of a legal gray area after a deal with the International Monetary Fund announced in December 2024.
Related: Country-wide Bitcoin adoption a mixed bag for national economies
Many hackers use X to disrupt markets
Even before Tesla CEO Elon Musk purchased X, then Twitter, in 2022, many hackers had used the social media platform to promote scams involving cryptocurrencies, often by hijacking accounts attached to celebrities or politicians. A group compromised Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Twitter account in 2021 to falsely claim the country had adopted Bitcoin as legal tender.
More recently, a hacker in the US gained access to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s X account through a SIM swap attack, falsely announcing the regulator had approved the listing and trading of spot BTC exchange-traded funds on exchanges. The individual, Eric Council Jr., was arrested and sentenced to 14 months in prison for his role in the scheme.
Magazine: US risks being ‘front run’ on Bitcoin reserve by other nations: Samson Mow
