NEAR Protocol’s X account hacked, here’s what we know so far

NEAR Protocol’s X account, which has over 1.9 million followers, has been posting cryptic messages over the past few hours, adding a dark tone to the community.

The first encrypted message on page X of the NEAR Protocol was published at 18:18 UTC on May 8. When the Morse code-like message is decoded, it reads “Darkness is coming.”

Source: MorseCode.World

Despite the dark tone of the message, NEAR Foundation’s chief marketing and events officer, Yadira Blocker, responded to the cryptic voice with, “Something’s cooking.”

Something is cooking 🧑‍🍳

— Yadira (@YadiraBlocker) May 8, 2024

In another X post, Blocker said “alpha has arrived.”

Moreover, NEAR Protocol’s The last four X posts on the official NEAR Protocol page say:

The sun rises from the east. Take your thoughts back. Darkness. Take back your sovereignty.

While some X users believed that the NEAR Protocol X account may have been breached, the company did not share any notifications or warnings. NEAR Foundation also did not share anything about the encrypted messages.

Last month, Spider-Man actor Tom Holland’s X account was hacked in an attempt to promote a crypto scam called SPIDER. On March 20, hackers breached Trezor’s X account and introduced a fake Solana-based cryptocurrency called TRZR.