Binance co-founder beseeches Elon Musk to address cryptocurrency scams on X

Elon Musk’s X.com isn’t doing enough to prevent the proliferation of cryptocurrency scams on the social media platform. That’s the apparent sentiment from Binance co-founder Yi He, who took to the app recently to question whether its billionaire owner would address the problem. 

Yi He’s concern was brought up in reference to a purported impersonation scam running on the X platform. She posted images showing accounts which were blatant imitations of both her X handle (@heyibinance) and her proper name.

According to the Binance executive, one specific impersonation scam directed users to click on a link purported to give access to Binance-backed memecoins. Yi He was quick to point out that no such coins have been issued and that clicking the link could result in loss of funds:

“I have not issued any new MEMEcoins. Clicking on the link will result in your money being stolen. Many people were tricked by this hacker link and lost a significant amount of money today. Is there any way to address this issue?”

As Cointelegraph recently reported, cryptocurrency scams have proliferated on X.com to the point where, according to analysts, scammers on the platform are to blame for an outsized portion of all crypto scams.

Analysis from Scam Sniffer, a web3 anti-scam company with a presence on X, nearly $50 million are lost each month with account impersonation on X.com being a primary driver behind the issue.

As many pundits have noted, these problems have been around long before Elon Musk took over the reins of Twitter and changed its name to X. However, lingering confusion over the new owner’s controversial paid verification service — wherein ostensibly anyone with a smartphone can register and receive verification — may be a contributing factor in the general public continuing to fall for impersonation scams on the platform.

A cursory review of Musk’s statements surrounding the Twitter takeover show that he iterated on several occasions that he intended to do something about the “bot” and “spam” problems. But it’s unclear whether he specifically addressed cryptocurrency scams.

As of the time of this article’s publication, Musk doesn’t appear to have responded to Yi He’s post on X.com.

Related: Tesla investors sue Elon Musk for diverting resources, talent to xAI