HALO Investigators identified a Grayscale impersonator channel on Telegram (t.me/Grayscalecrypto), using the handle ‘GRAYSCALE CRYPTO LANDING PAGE’. This channel was created on 24 December 2021 and currently reports to have 2,975 subscribers. According to its bio, the channel “is the legitimate landing Page/Channel of GRAYSCALE CRYPTO” and offers a variety of services including “payment receipts” and “invite friends and family for bonus coins.”

The impersonator channel posts regular cryptocurrency-related news articles, interspersed with solicitations to contact a ‘helpdesk’ account for “difficulties with deposit and withdrawals” and “live assistance of Grayscale Crypto.”

Investigators engaged the helpdesk account (t.me/GrayscaleLive_Assistance), which provided information on tiered investment levels ranging from ‘bronze’ to ‘gold’ and offering exponential rates of return within 24-72 hours. The account signed off its last message as ‘Sara’. Investigators surfaced a Bitcoin wallet address associated with this scam, and an associated aggregator wallet: