Cardano Founder Warns IOG YouTube Channel Has Been Compromised

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson said early Friday that someone has hijacked the official Input Output Global (IOG) YouTube channel.

He warned the community not to click on any links on the platform or trust any videos that someone might post there.

Team Working With YouTube

Hoskinson posted the warning on X, saying:

“The IOG YouTube apparently has been compromised. Do not trust any videos or click on any links on it.”

He also said the team was working with YouTube to take the channel down and reset credentials.

At the time of writing, IOG’s own X account had not mentioned the alleged compromise, although several Cardano-focused accounts had echoed Hoskinson’s warning.

Bitcoin investor Lark Davis also shared the news with his 1.5 million X followers, urging them to always do their own research and triple-check everything.

The channel itself does not show obvious signs of a scam broadcast yet, with its newest uploads still the same ones IOG posted a couple of weeks ago, including a Musashi Dojo update, a Leios explainer, and a Lace wallet interview with Nate Strang.

A Familiar Playbook For Crypto Users

Compromised social media accounts belonging to established crypto brands and leading personalities have become one of the more reliable scam formats around, mostly because an account with years of posting, uploading videos, and interacting with a huge follower or subscriber base often reads as trustworthy to anyone scrolling past it.

The bigger the following, the more convincing a fake post or livestream giveaway would become to someone who hasn’t clocked that the channel has changed hands, making it easier for them to be hit with phishing links that could drain funds from their wallets.

The alleged IOG incident has also come right when crypto is facing a major account and data security issue. As CryptoPotato reported recently, an attacker using a real government agency’s email domain convinced Revolut to hand over customer information, including passports, verification selfies, and complete Bitcoin transaction histories.

Later, a group calling itself Revolut Smilik started publishing the information while demanding 10,000 BTC to stop.

While the two incidents are not exactly the same, both show how much damage a convincing impersonation can do before anyone gets the chance to double-check.