Modi's hacked Twitter account told followers that the country would distribute 500 bitcoins among citizens
There is no legislature in India that recognises Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin as tender
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Twitter account was hacked on Sunday. The account, which has more than 73 million followers, relayed that the country had accepted bitcoin and would start distributing it to citizens.
The prime minister's office officially announced that the account had been "very briefly compromised" soon after.
The announcement read "The matter was escalated to Twitter, and the account has been immediately secured. In the brief period that the account was compromised, any Tweet shared must be ignored."
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The bluff tweet said, "India has officially accepted Bitcoin as legal tender. The government has officially bought 500 BTC and is distributing them to all residents of the country," reported CNN.
"The future has come today! #BTC" it further read with several emojis and a probable scam link, according to a screenshot of the tweet posted online.
There is no legislature in India that recognises Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin as tender.
Last September, the Twitter account of Modi's personal website encouraged people to donate cryptocurrency to a Covid-19 relief fund.
The Indian government has been a cyberattack target over 30,000 times this year as of October, The Times of India reported, citing government figures.
The cyber compromise of Modi's Twitter account isn't the first of its kind. High-profile Twitter accounts like those of former President Barack Obama, Kim Kardashian, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk have previously been hacked for crypto hoaxes as well. Causing Twitter's stock to suffer $1.3billion loss in value.
