Some prominent crypto influencers are under fire after amplifying what was revealed to be a fraudulent XRP wallet allegedly linked to the U.S. Treasury.
The scam gained widespread attention on X before being debunked through on-chain analysis.
Data from XRPSCAN, the default blockchain explorer for XRPL, revealed that the wallet address the influencers claimed had connections to Bank of America and JPMorgan, originated in the Philippines. Despite being KYC-verified, the wallet had no legitimate ties to U.S. financial institutions.
????The U.S. Treasury has just created an #XRP wallet!
Is this real?? ???? pic.twitter.com/mv9zRKWugp
— JackTheRippler ©️ (@RippleXrpie) January 21, 2025
The incident has sparked outrage within the crypto community. Zach Rynes, community coordinator at Chainlink, publicly criticized influencers for spreading misinformation within the XRP/Ripple ecosystem. He referenced similar incidents, including debunked 2021 rumours about Bank of America processing internal payments through Ripple.
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Influencers pushed the wallet
One of the central figures in the controversy is David Stryzewski, CEO of Sound Planning Group. Stryzewski has previously shared inaccurate information about XRP, falsely describing it as a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). During a podcast with former U.S. Senate candidate John E. Deaton, Stryzewski also wrongly claimed Ripple was headquartered in Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, the incident coincides with broader concerns about crypto fraud. Scam Sniffer reported an 87% surge in impersonation accounts during December 2024, with daily averages jumping from 160 to over 300 compared to November. The blockchain analytics firm warned that scammers increasingly target high-profile accounts to promote fraudulent tokens and phishing schemes. The severity of these scams was highlighted by a recent case where two victims lost over $3 million in cryptocurrency after interacting with malicious links and inadvertently approving fraudulent transactions from fake accounts.
Numerous warnings have also been issued regarding various scams, particularly phishing schemes impersonating reputable sites such as Zoom. It’s crucial for participants in the crypto market to check links and refrain from downloading suspicious files.
XRP community should learn from the incident
The incident shows that institutional adoption claims need a higher standard of proof than ordinary crypto rumours.
If a government department, bank or asset manager supposedly opens a crypto wallet, the first confirmation should come from the institution itself or a credible regulatory filing, not from a wallet label, an influencer post or a token appearing on-chain.
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