In brief
- The channel was briefly compromised late Wednesday, promoting a Solana-based token.
- An hour later, the PGL YouTube channel, run by the Romanian esports organizer behind Valve-sanctioned tournaments, was also reportedly hijacked to stream a fake Bitcoin giveaway.
- Decrypt independently verified screenshots of the compromised Dota 2 channel before the content was removed.
The official Dota 2 YouTube channel was briefly compromised on Wednesday, with the account promoting a Solana-based token called dota2coin through what observers described as a fraudulent livestream.
There are no indications of user data being compromised beyond the fraudulent promotions. Decrypt independently confirmed the video’s existence through a notification history log.
The livestreamed video titled “Dota 2 Launch Official Meme Coin | Hurry Up,” was accompanied by a link to a PumpFun token. The coin’s description, in return, included a link to the official YouTube channel.
It also comes amid reports of some users experiencing playback errors across YouTube’s platform with some unable to watch videos at all, according to a report by 9to5Google.
At the time of writing, the meme coin’s market cap has fallen to around $5,500, down roughly 21% since its launch at roughly 21:55 UTC, according to data from Pump.fun.
The coin’s on-chain metrics suggest it was created within hours of the hack, with less than 3% bonding curve progress and a single wallet holding over 98% of the token supply.
Reddit users on the r/DotA2 thread quickly documented the hack, posting screenshots of the fake token promotion and warning others not to engage.
The breach appeared to spread beyond Dota 2’s official channel, with users later reporting that PGL, a Romanian esports organizer responsible for hosting Valve-sanctioned Dota 2 tournaments, was also hacked.
A post on Reddit’s r/DotA2 sub showed the PGL YouTube account broadcasting a fake Bitcoin livestream impersonating Strategy executive Michael Saylor, with over 2,000 viewers at one point.
Decrypt reached out to Valve and PGL to confirm. PumpFun co-founders did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for confirmation and comment in a Telegram group.
The breach follows a familiar pattern seen across multiple high-profile YouTube hijackings in years past, which have been used to push fraudulent crypto schemes since at least 2020.
At the time, hackers were taking over popular creators’ channels, rebranding them to impersonate known crypto figures, and running fake token promotions or livestream “giveaways.”
A later report citing Google’s Threat Analysis Group detailed how attackers systematically compromised verified YouTube accounts, often through phishing emails disguised as sponsorship offers, to mimic exchanges like Binance or Gemini and broadcast counterfeit crypto events.
Institutional and public-sector accounts have been targeted as well. Last year, India’s Supreme Court YouTube channel was hacked to promote an XRP-branded scam stream, echoing the same tactics now seen in the Dota 2 case.
Some tech icons have also been impersonated. In August, fake videos using Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak’s likeness led to victims losing “life savings” in similar Bitcoin giveaway scams.
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