India's Supreme Court YouTube Channel Hacked to Shill XRP Crypto Scam

Hackers targeted the official YouTube channel of India’s Supreme Court Friday to shill XRP, the seventh biggest cryptocurrency by market cap. 

The Supreme Court announced Friday that the YouTube channel had been taken down as a result. Indian news channels reported the events, claiming that the channel was advertising a cryptocurrency developed by “U.S.-based Ripple labs.” 

Screenshots from the hack circulated on Twitter (aka X) showing Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse alongside an announcement saying that “Ripple will hit $2 in this month.” 

In another screenshot, the YouTube channel appeared to be showing an “XRP price prediction.” 

XRP is a digital coin created by the founders of Ripple, a fintech company that wants to speed up cross-border payments. The cryptocurrency and the company now operate separately. 

Later in the evening in India, the Supreme Court said that the YouTube channel was up and running again, now with the crypto content removed. The Supreme Court did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s questions. 

Despite being a favorite trick for scammers for years, hacks pushing crypto cons are becoming more common. 

Some of these hacks falsely promise investors huge returns by trying to con them into sending their digital coins to a crypto address. Others aim to get people to buy into a coin that the hackers typically own a significant share of, and then they dump their tokens—and typically crash the price in the process as they cash out.

Just on Wednesday, hackers targeted a number of high-profile Twitter accounts to push a Solana-based meme token. The accounts of computer brand Lenovo’s India division, film director Oliver Stone, and Brazilian soccer player Neymar Jr. were just some of those compromised.

Edited by Andrew Hayward