Rumors of the US Treasury Department’s alleged raid on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) are circulating, sparking excitement in the digital asset community. On January 21, several community accounts on BlackRockand JPMorgan.
XRP scam alert
However, a deeper look under the hood has revealed a series of red flags indicating that the wallet in question is neither authentic nor connected to the US Treasury Department. Community member Echo debunk the rumor through a detailed video overview.
In the video, he explained that there are many warning signs with the wallet. “If you use that was deposited into this wallet by people who simply sent it to the Treasury. Or what they think the (Treasury) is.”
According to Echo He and other developers from BuildX and the ERS team identified an unusual pattern of newly issued “Bank of America,” “BlackRock” and “JPMorgan” tokens, all issued from the same address – strong indications that the tokens are not legitimate.
Public data from Bithomp shows that the suspect wallet was activated on January 21 at 15:17 UTC, after which it promptly set its domain to the official US Treasury address, home.treasury.gov – a move that observers said was intended to appear legitimate.
Notably, the wallet received 1 trillion units of each of the so-called “Bank of America”, “BlackRock” and “JPMorgan” tokens, placed multiple sell orders for tens of millions of these tokens in exchange for XRP and used questionable domain references, including an apparently invalid “BRICS domain.”
Echo X emphasized that users who looked deeper into the provenance of these tokens would discover their suspicious origins. He noted: “Now if you actually click on it and you see what the Genesis wallets are… it will take you to a BRICS domain wallet. … That BRICS domain isn’t even a valid domain. Why would the BRICS create a wallet?”
Adding to the doubt, data shows that wallet trust lines have been created around newly issued tokens that have no official backing. In one notable transaction, the address placed an order to trade 299 million JPMorgan tokens for 33.23 million XRP, at an exchange rate of 0.11 XRP per token, raising more eyebrows about its authenticity.
The rumor gained traction when it appeared on XRPScan that the addresses in question had some form of verification tag, an aspect that typically shows that a wallet has completed a Know Your Customer (KYC) process. However, Wietse Wind, founder of Xaman (formerly Xumm), clarified that verification on Wind noted via
“The domain field is a public field on an account on the blockchain, anyone can enter anything there. Issued tokens can be spent by anyone. KYC can be done by anyone. … XRPScan shows data contained in the ledger. This data is in the general ledger. (…) They are actually all KYC certified. By different people, all from the Philippines. So there we have it. KYC helps, but it is still no guarantee.”
Wind’s comments underscore that the KYC process is limited to verifying an individual’s identity. It does not confirm that person’s ties to an organization, such as the U.S. Treasury Department or a major bank. In fact, a user can label a wallet “Treasury,” coin tokens named after financial institutions, and set up a domain on a high-profile website without actually representing these entities.
In its video, Echo team and the developers… because they are trying to save you. … Make sure you do your own research and know what you have in your hands.”
At the time of writing, XRP was trading at $3.17
Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com