This is bad news to be honest, I suggest if anybody uses online wallets etc to never text anybody about their involvement in bitcoin. There’s so many tech gifted people around willing to misuse their ‘talents’. You never know who is following your footsteps via text or call.

Basically the one & only rule has always been do not leave large amounts of bitcoin on online wallet providers where your phone number is linked. In fact don’t leave any significant amount online full stop.

You lost me at:


Exactly, face id works at a phone level, so the "hackers" getting ahold of your number means nothing.
You can't add a face ID to your account when an existent one is still active, you must remove the previous and it will work only with your face.

So unless the sim hijacker got also an iPhone and stick it to your face or he knew your security passcode (which is stored at phone level)  he couldn't have gained access to it.

Also,

No really the best way to advertise your business...just saying!

This was a coordinated attack on blockchain leaders. I am also a strong proponent of the agile methodology who strives to be "less wrong" versus "right" (read: close-minded), and believe that failure is something to be socialized and a learning experience for as many as possible. The real question is what you do from failure? I'm starting here hoping that others learn and are better protected, but also am using my position to work on better tech to solve this. That's the long tail though. This is the start.

If leaders don't use their position to help others, are they really a leader?

Is it that easy to print SIM thesedays? Don't the network companies ask for stuff like biometric ID? It is either they  are Bribed to clone the SIMs  or some very influential people are doing the cloning.
Good advice though on not allowing ones passwords and 2fa to be tied to a phone number.

If I remember correctly, this also happened to a Youtuber too, I think it's h3h3. A person is able to change his number which holds his youtube account. It's scary how easily numbers could be change without the owners knowning. I mean, how low is there security for them to just sim swap without any proof of ownership? that is just absurd.

This is one of the most common attacks in many years, and there is no correct way to stop it. Professional hackers can break all security. They always have new attacks to remove all layers of security to hijack the accounts of the users they want. The best way to ensure the security of your account, turn on all the security layers provided by the system.

If you use sim-based 2FA your entire financial future may hinge on how engaged some bored call centre worker on 10 bucks an hour is feeling that afternoon. That's not reassuring.

What's bizarre is how many companies don't offer alternatives when they should know the risks perfectly well. In the UK quite a few banks are now moving to making all internet banking and online shopping transactions require SMS only confirmation. There are probably hundreds of thousands of people who have no signal at home and they're not being offered landline or email as an alternative.

I quite often never get a text message arriving, or if it does it's several minutes after the window has expired. It's seriously clunky and needs to be given the boot.