ZachXBT exposes viral Cuba and Iran ‘news’ accounts as crypto scammers running AI deepfakes

In the dark underbelly of crypto Twitter, a new horror show is brewing, and it’s exploiting your fear, your outrage, and your X timeline. On March 23, 2026, renowned on-chain sleuth ZachXBT went after X accounts weaponizing war to steal crypto.

There is a coordinated network of 10+ fake X accounts intentionally creating viral panic with fabricated ‘breaking news’ pieces on geopolitics, from Cuban hospital blackouts killing ventilator patients to Iranian ‘hit lists’ against civilian infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan.

ZachXBT exposes fake news accounts run by crypto scammers 

According to ZachXBT, these crypto scammers use AI-generated personas and fear-mongering about geopolitics to garner massive engagement on X, before shifting to promoting crypto pump-and-dump scams.

One account has had 16 username changes over the last 2 years. ZachXBT and crypto investors have called on Nikita Bier to ban the larp accounts.

Another account with over 350,000 followers has landed on ZachXBT’s scam radar. He notes, “Look, another fake Sheik larp account used to farm engagement and promote crypto pump and dumps.”

Rashid bin Saeed on X promotes himself as a crypto enthusiast based in the UAE. However, his post had nothing to do with crypto but everything to do with Iran and who they would bomb next. He emphasizes, “Trump’s 48-hour ultimatum is still ticking. These are the targets at HOUR 48.”

His account pins him to the United States, and he has had 3 username changes in a span of 2 years.

Another scammer account has zeroed in on Cuba. The Cuba post claims a total hospital blackout killed every ventilator patient, blames a US/Trump “blockade” for zero oil for months, and calls it a humanitarian disaster. 

As reported by Cryptopolitan, US Treasury sanctions diverted two Russian oil tankers carrying 930,000 barrels to Cuba in mid-March. This intensified grid failures amid zero oil imports for three months, a situation Cuban President Díaz-Canel publicly acknowledged on March 20.

A third similar post by @cn_redoracle, a “Chinese breaking news” account, repeats the Cuba story with almost identical wording and framing.

ZachXBT highlights this pattern:

• These aren’t real journalists or insiders. They’re crypto grifters who: Create throwaway accounts with AI PFPs (Asian news guy, rich Sheikh, Chinese oracle).
• Sharing unverified, emotionally charged “breaking news” on popular geopolitics topics that are guaranteed to go viral (blackouts/deaths in Cuba, retaliation lists in Iran, etc.).
• Leverage viral audience to run fake crypto giveaways, pump low-cap tokens, or extract liquidity from followers.

‘Engagement farming’ on X fools unsuspecting crypto investors

Engagement farming on X has gotten worse at the expense of meaningful conversations and, in the crypto space, innocent investors’ money.

Nikita Bier, Head of Product at X,  has been vocal about fighting engagement farming and bots. In his tenure, he has focused on refining the platform’s algorithm to prioritize quality over spam, reduce bot saturation, and improve feed diversity. 

However, this has not sat right with crypto investors. “The algorithm is the worst it’s ever been. All I see is politics, rage bait, engagement bait, and like 10% crypto content. Communities are dying, and this app is becoming Instagram 2.0 when infact it’s best feature was the fact that communities formed around topics and you stayed largely within that community on your feed,” Ethan, a market watcher, posted.

In response to a user complaint, Bier sought to explain how X’s recommendation system works. In a now-deleted post, the executive addressed the growing misconception within Crypto Twitter. Investors have sought Elon Musk’s help to fix the problem.

ZachXBT agrees with Nikita Bier. He asserts, “If you want to go down a rabbit hole on CT, check the engagement farm communities where thousands of accounts inorganically spam slop replies under posts 24/7.”

Now, the dislike button on replies is returning to Elon Musk’s social media platform X. According to posts from Nikita Bier, the feature would inform the platform’s algorithm of the types of content a user doesn’t want to see in their feed.

“They should have a dislike button on twitter too,” posted one X user. “Give me 60 seconds,” Bier replied.