Under the guise of Staci Warden, the hacker posted a series of offensive messages aimed at discrediting the foundation, its users, and partners. Additionally, the hacker urged the community to divest from Algorand assets and instead invest in ether. To further tarnish Warden’s reputation, the hacker altered her biography to claim she had left the Algorand Foundation to pursue a career as a “semi-professional erotic pole dancer.”
Some individuals saw this incident as an opportunity to voice their existing criticisms of the Algorand Foundation and Staci Warden herself. One crypto detective named ZachXBT went as far as to suggest that the hacker may be a better CEO for Algorand. This led to the conclusion that Warden’s professional competence was inferior to that of an intern at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), whose account was also hacked on January 9.
Following the SEC hack, an announcement purportedly from the SEC was published, endorsing the trading of Bitcoin ETFs. The crypto market experienced a significant price fluctuation in response, but when the announcement was revealed to be fake, approximately $1 billion was lost due to position liquidations.