Peter Steinberger, the creator of the open-source AI assistant ClawdBot, has publicly rejected any affiliation with crypto. That is after scammers hijacked his on-line identification to advertise faux token tasks.
The controversy erupted following ClawdBot’s rebrand to Moltbot, a transfer Steinberger says was pressured by trademark issues raised by Anthropic and later exploited by crypto promoters.
AI Founder Attracts a Arduous Line as Crypto Scammers Hijack His Identification
In a sequence of posts on X (Twitter), Steinberger made his place unequivocal, articulating that he would by no means do a coin.
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“Any project that lists me as a coin owner is a SCAM. No, I will not accept fees. You are actively damaging the project,” he wrote.
Steinberger added that he has by no means issued tokens, doesn’t endorse any crypto initiative, and won’t settle for deployment or endorsement charges below any circumstances.
The scenario traces again to ClawdBot’s rise in visibility inside AI developer circles. The self-hostable AI agent gained consideration for its always-on capabilities, prompting discussions round each its utility and its dangers.
Because the challenge grew, Anthropic raised trademark issues in regards to the “ClawdBot” title. This pressured Steinberger to rebrand it as Moltbot, a nod to the lobster-themed assistant “molting” into a brand new identification.
Nonetheless, the transition didn’t go easily. Steinberger acknowledged that operational errors in the course of the rename allowed dangerous actors to grab his former handles.
In accordance with Steinberger, crypto scammers rapidly squatted his outdated X and GitHub accounts and started utilizing them to launch or promote meme coin-style token schemes falsely claiming his involvement.
He later confirmed that his unique GitHub account had been taken over and publicly appealed for assist.
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Harassment Persists as Meme Coin Tradition Collides with Open-Supply AI
Regardless of repeatedly distancing himself from crypto, Steinberger mentioned the harassment has continued. He described persistent messages from crypto practitioners urging him to “claim” token deployment charges.
Reportedly, some additionally urge him to acknowledge token launches carried out in his title, actions he says are actively harming the open-source challenge and complicated customers.
“Those people make my online life a living hell. I can barely use my account. It’s nonstop pings. They invade our Discord server, ignore the server rules, spam me on Telegram, and squat my account names. They’re making my online life a living hell. It makes zero sense to have a coin for this. I am not throwing my reputation away for a quick buck,” mentioned Steinberger in an unique assertion to BeInCrypto.
Group response to Steinberger’s warnings has been blended. Replies to his posts ranged from jokes about accepting “free money” to robust defenses of his refusal to interact with token tradition.
The episode has highlighted how deeply meme coin hypothesis has permeated on-line tech communities, even when creators explicitly choose out.
Whereas Steinberger has beforehand mocked the house by parody concepts like “vibecoin,” he has careworn that ClawdBot (now Moltbot) is just not, and can by no means be, a crypto challenge.
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BeInCrypto requested Steinberger whether or not his Vibecoin reference might have unintentionally made ClawdBot extra weak to being misinterpreted as crypto-adjacent.
“I don’t think many of them got the pun. It’s like they look at it for 5 seconds. What demographic is this? Children?” Steinberger replied.
Notably, some customers have already reported the necessity to change their domains in response to this incident, to keep away from being focused by dangerous actors.
Steinberger supported this transfer, amid mounting complaints concentrating on customers.
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Shruti Gandhi from Array VC says they had been attacked 7,922 occasions over the weekend after utilizing Clawdbot.
That is so scary we had been attacked 7,922 occasions over the weekend after utilizing Clawdbot.
There are a whole bunch of Clawdbot servers uncovered to the open web this week. Credential dumps. API keys in plaintext. The factor individuals missed is that you simply’re not the one enter to your agent.… pic.twitter.com/q0vJnSKi1q
— Shruti Gandhi / Array VC leads preseed rounds (@atShruti) January 26, 2026
The challenge’s sudden prominence additionally drew consideration to its safety implications. Browser developer Courageous issued public steerage warning that always-on AI brokers like ClawdBot can pose severe dangers if misconfigured.
Clawdbot is a robust software, however utilizing an always-on AI with such broad capabilities generally is a safety danger.
Listed here are some tricks to decrease the hazard. 🧵 https://t.co/CEuvt21JDM
— Courageous (@courageous) January 27, 2026
Because of this, the browser recommends that customers run the bot on remoted machines, restrict account entry, and keep away from exposing it on to the web.
“…there is no ‘perfectly secure’ setup for such tools,” Courageous emphasised.
For Steinberger, the incident displays the dangers confronted by open-source AI builders as tasks go viral. What started as a technical rebrand is now a case of identification hijacking, speculative extra, and the rising overlap and friction between AI innovation and crypto hype.
