Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, confirmed on July 17 that his verified X account had been compromised earlier in the week. The breach, which occurred on July 14, allowed attackers to post a lengthy thread promoting the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA). Unlike typical crypto scams that rely on malicious links or fake token presales, this incident involved an AI-generated narrative designed to mimic Chesky’s formal writing style.
Cybersecurity firm Pangram analyzed the fake posts and found a fully automated syntactic concordance pattern, indicating the text was generated by artificial intelligence. The thread argued that blockchain technology could revolutionize physical property ownership by providing liquidity comparable to the internet’s impact on information. It highlighted frictionless transactions, instant settlement, and smart contract infrastructure.
Airbnb confirmed the “high-profile compromise” and worked with X’s security team to regain control of the account. Chesky addressed the incident with a lighthearted post on X: “To the person who hacked my account earlier this week: thanks for all the new crypto followers. To my new crypto followers: I’m going to be a very disappointing follow.” The fake thread reached over 700,000 followers before being deleted, and although no direct financial losses were reported, it raised fresh concerns about identity theft powered by generative AI.
Some social media users questioned whether a hack had actually occurred, suggesting it might have been an internal mistake or a poorly executed PR campaign. Developer Jarrod Watts commented, “Why would a hacker post a thread about RWAs LMAO,” while investor Graeme Moore mocked the notion. Skepticism aside, the event underscores a growing trend: hackers hijacking high-profile accounts to inject legitimate-sounding crypto narratives, rather than merely posting scam links. In 2020, a massive compromise of celebrity X accounts resulted in a Bitcoin giveaway scam that collected over $100,000 before being shut down.
