Ledger CTO Warns: Deepfake Zoom Call Cost ThorChain Founder $1.35M in Crypto, A Wake-Up Call for Digital Asset Security
In a time of virtual meetings and online fortunes that can evaporate in seconds, one deep-fake Zoom call has laid bare the fragility megamillion-dollar cryptocurrency holders can face. On an unsuspecting conference link, THORChain (RUNE) co-founder JP Thor (@jpthor) had access to a long-forgotten MetaMask wallet: 1.35 million USD in crypto stolen.
The incident, which Ledger CTO Charles Guillemet highlighted last week after receiving the threatening letter at his home, is more than a little personal. It is also a pointed example for investors and the general public that deep fake scams are evolving faster than defenses, potentially undermining trust in what by one estimation has become a 2.5 trillion USD cryptocurrency market and leading to an uptick in hardware wallet adoption these days.
Historical Context: The Emergence of Deepfakes in Crypto-Frauds
Deepfake technology, which took off with advances in AI tech in the mid-2010s, originated as an entertainment gimmick but rapidly emerged as a force to be reckoned with in the world of cybercrime. The word “deepfake” began to circulate around 2017, when a handful of viral videos employing celebrities as puppets created early awareness of the threats posed by deepfakes, but its criminal use was introduced in 2019, when a U.K. energy company lost 243,000 USD after its CEO fell victim to an urgent request from himself to make a wire transfer. It was not him on the line but his own voice running on software. By 2020, during the COVID-19 era of remote work boom, deepfake fraud attempts surged along with the explosive growth of crypto.
Highlights include the 2021 “pig butchering” scams, which featured a mash-up of romance cons and fake investment apps, costing victims 2.8 billion USD worldwide. Fast-forward to 2023: deepfake fraud had soared 10 times its 2022 level, with 88% of cases focused on the crypto industry. That year, attempts at deepfakes made up 6.5% of all fraud, a 2,137% increase over three years. The historical data are grim. Americans alone were scammed out of 9.3 billion USD worth of crypto in 2024, up from 3.3 billion USD in 2022, with AI systems enabling impersonations that are virtually indistinguishable. North Korean hackers, usually associated with state-sponsored groups like Lazarus, have been the main villains in this trend, utilizing deepfakes to break defenses of high-profile targets such as THORChain’s ecosystem.
Present Facts: Market Volatility - Adopting in the Face of Escalating Threats
The THORChain founder’s deepfake Zoom scam was a classic case of snowball-style theft using a hijacked Telegram account and a fake video call to give the hackers access to his iCloud Keychain so they could siphon 1.35M USD without having to obtain transaction signatures. This demonstrated the dark side of software wallets such as MetaMask. Guillemet's warning was clear: keeping large amounts of crypto online is “a question not of if you are going to get drained but when.”
THORChain (RUNE) Statistics
THORChain's native token RUNE is trading at 1.2831313 USD, with a market capitalization of 451,498,866 USD, ranked #201 cryptocurrency. This comes after a wild August where RUNE crashed from the high of 1.39 USD to 1.18 USD in-lows before calming, a 5% post-scam move driven by wider market nervousness. THORChain’s network is still resilient and already handled 10.4 billion USD worth of swaps in Q2 2025, showing the power of decentralized exchange (DEX) adoption despite the exploit.
Larger trends across crypto highlight the significance. Worldwide, more and more users are getting into crypto, now at 562 million as of 2025, up 15% year over year, with much of that growth thanks to DeFi and cross-chain protocols like THORChain. But the volume of deepfake incidents spiked by 19% in Q1 2025 over all of 2024 with more than 200 million USD in financial loss associated with AI-powered phishing. Crypto scams amounted to 4.6 billion USD in 2024, up by 24% compared with earlier years, while 57% of crypto firms said that they experienced audio deepfake attacks. Ledger’s hardware wallets enjoyed a 25% quarter-on-quarter sales increase in Q3 2025, according to tracking by industry sources, because of the rush toward cold storage given these risks.
Implications: The Ripple Effect For Investors, Regulators and Businesses
The 1.35 million USD deepfake Zoom call fail will ripple far beyond JP Thor and Vultisig. For investors, the consequences of loose security are now on steroids. Software wallets are convenient but unsafe, and they have become a millionaire’s ticking time bomb in a market where 9.9 billion USD was scammed away in 2024 alone. THORChain’s token plunge after the hack may indicate an ebbing of short-term sentiment and encourage diversification into hardware-based structures such as Ledger, which protects keys from online threats.
Clearly, regulators are under pressure to act. The FBI warns of a “disturbing rise” in deepfake incidents and there are calls for AI-specific fraud detection requirements in financial services. The SEC has also issued warnings about deepfakes potentially evading enforcement, with 380 million USD worth of crypto fraud involving AI by 2024, a 900% increase. Companies such as Vultisig, a wallet provider, risk losing their respective reputations and perhaps halting partnerships and user growth in a cutthroat DeFi environment.
All told, these incidents spell higher volatility for altcoins such as RUNE, slower mainstream adoption as trust wavers, and a business pivot towards multi-factor, AI-resistant authentication to protect the ecosystem.
Outlook for the Future: Preparing for a Crypto World Ruled by Deepfakes
Analysts expect deepfake crypto crime to soar, with copies of a shared deepfake file leaping from 500,000 by end-2023 to 8 million at close of play in 2025, facilitating real-time impersonations that avoid even biometric identity checks. Chainalysis estimates that overall crypto scam losses will grow to 12-15 billion USD in 2025, which represents a 20-50% increase, empowering North Korean actors with deepfake Zoom tactics. Still, there is a silver lining to the cloud. Ledger’s Charles Guillemet and Elliptic analysts are predicting we are on the verge of a “security renaissance,” with hardware wallet usage set to spike 40% by 2026, according to Q3 2025 sales data.
AI countermeasures such as voice anomaly detection could also, according to Sumsub estimates, help fight off 70% of these types of attacks and create a regulatory framework, for example through the EU’s AI Act, that would make transplanting labels on deepfakes standardized by 2026. For THORChain, RUNE's price forecast ranges from 1.55 USD to 1.65 USD by year-end, a 20%-30% upside if the network does deliver on its 10B+ USD quarterly volume targets. Guillemet sums up: Investors should heed this advice while they can. Move to offline storage now as the next deepfake wave may in fact cost billions more, but strengthened defenses bring a perseverant 3 trillion USD crypto market by 2030. Keep your eyes open. In crypto, security is not an option, it is survival.
This article is contributed by an external writer: Caleb Obed.
Disclaimer: The content created by LBank Creators represents their personal perspectives. LBank does not endorse any content on this page. Readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to the company and carry full responsibility for their decisions, nor can this article be considered as investment advice.