Significant hacks targeted the gaming industry today, with e-sports channels and official company platforms co-opted to advertise a fake meme coin. This breach even affected one of Valve’s YouTube channels.
Valve was specifically aimed at in these cyberattacks, resulting in third-party fan channels falling prey to the breach. This incident underscores the pervasive nature of crypto crime in 2025.
Crypto Hacks in Gaming
The landscape of crypto crime has evolved dramatically, featuring a multitude of hacks, scams, and fraudulent activities. However, one recent security breach stands out as particularly alarming.
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Several prominent YouTube gaming and e-sports channels, including the official DOTA 2 channel, experienced hacks to promote a counterfeit meme coin:
The effectiveness of this hack in persuading gamers to buy the scam token remains uncertain, yet the incident raises various concerns.
Many of these fraudulent videos lingered online for several hours before being taken down, and these hacks might have been linked to a wider YouTube outage.
Special Focus on Valve
This coordinated hacking effort targeted various channels across the gaming community, including those for other Valve games and e-sports events. Such channels consist of PGL, ESL, Esports World Cup, and Mobile Legends MPL Indonesia.
Although BLAST Counter-Strike is not directly connected to Valve, it covers one of the company’s most celebrated games. The hackers seemingly had a concentrated focus on this developer, one of the largest companies in the gaming sector.
Regrettably, this is not the first occasion in recent weeks where Valve products have been instrumental in crypto scams. Last month, the company had to eliminate a malware game from Steam after it facilitated $150,000 in thefts.
This malware bypassed all community safeguards of the storefront, resulting in a minor scandal. Now, a hack against this gaming giant has further eroded trust, illustrating that any company can be susceptible. To date, Valve has not provided a public statement regarding the incident.
Fortunately, gaming fans quickly identified and reported this hack, reducing the overall damage. Nevertheless, there are significant concerns. Users should be cautious when interacting with clickbait crypto ads, as they may promote fake tokens.
