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Ripple CTO warns against XRP scams amid SEC-induced hype

A court ruling in favor of Ripple Labs — stating that XRP (XRP) is not a security — reignited the long-lost hype around the ecosystem. Anticipating an influx of scams as the token rallies defying bearish sentiments, Ripple CTO David Schwartz issued a warning to investors.

A two-year-long legal battle between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple partly concluded on July 13 with XRP having ripped off the ‘securities’ label by the United States District Court in the Southern District of New York.

What followed was an organic but substantial spike in XRP’s market price. As shown below, the XRP price rallied over 70% — bringing up its value from $0.47 to $0.82 in a day. The incident also marks the biggest price jump XRP witnessed over the past year.

XRP 1-year price chart showing a spike after New York court ruling. Source: TradingView

The hype around cryptocurrencies or crypto ecosystems like nonfungible tokens (NFTs) is when crypto scammers get highly active in trying to dupe unwary investors. Schwartz took to Twitter to warn against the rising XRP scams. He said:

“A lot of scammers are taking advantage of the recent good news to try to cheat and steal. There are no airdrops, giveaways, or special offers associated with this ruling.”

Given its massive popularity and growing community, scammers often imitate Ripple’s official website to promote fake giveaways and airdrops. In such instances, the scammer intends to gain access to the potential victim’s crypto wallets, which would be used to drain existing tokens or siphon stolen funds at a later date.

Related: Ripple, Binance impersonators target XRP holders via fake staking program

In April 2023, YouTube helped recover a creator’s channel with 2.4 million subscribers, which was hacked to promote XRP scams.

YouTuber DidYouKnowGaming regained access to its account and recovered the deleted videos following a swift intervention from YouTube. The exploit used by the hackers to gain access to YouTube accounts remains a mystery.

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