Clawdbot is an open-source project that lets users run an AI assistant locally with full system access through platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Discord. The project gained significant attention on GitHub, where it accumulated more than 80,000 stars. Its design enables local execution of assistant functionality while providing interfaces across popular messaging platforms.
The series of events summarized as “Clawdbot chaos” began when a trademark claim by Anthropic on the name Claude resulted in a forced rebrand from Clawdbot to Moltbot. During the gap created by that change, crypto scammers hijacked both the project’s GitHub organization and its X account and used the compromised accounts to promote a fake Solana token called CLAWD. The token reached over $16 million in market capitalization within hours before collapsing. Peter Steinberger publicly denied involvement with the token and warned that it was a scam, after which harassment campaigns targeted him with accusations of betrayal and demands to endorse projects. Security researchers also found hundreds of Clawdbot instances exposed to the public internet without authentication, and Steinberger ultimately regained control of the compromised accounts.
A trademark claim by Anthropic on its Claude models led to a forced rebrand of the open-source assistant Clawdbot to the new name Moltbot. The claim prompted the project to change its public name and branding. The project’s account posted the message “Same lobster soul, new shell” referencing the new identity. Named entities directly involved in the rebranding included Anthropic, Claude, Clawdbot, and Moltbot.
The rebrand created a brief gap during which attackers hijacked the project’s GitHub organization and its X account. Those compromised accounts were used to promote a fake Solana token called CLAWD, which reached over $16 million in market capitalization within hours before collapsing. Peter Steinberger denied involvement with the token, warned it was a scam, and later regained control of the compromised accounts. This sequence of trademark claim, forced rebrand, account hijack and token promotion is central to what has been called “Clawdbot chaos”.
During the gap created by the rebrand, attackers hijacked the project’s GitHub organization and its X account. The compromised accounts were used to promote a fake cryptocurrency token called CLAWD on the Solana blockchain. The token’s market capitalization rose to over $16 million within hours before collapsing. Peter Steinberger publicly denied any involvement with the token and warned that it was a scam.
Following Steinberger’s denial, harassment campaigns targeted him with accusations of betrayal and demands that he endorse projects. The compromised accounts had been used to pump the CLAWD token while the project was transitioning its name, and Steinberger ultimately regained control of the accounts. The sequence of account hijack, token promotion on Solana, rapid market-cap increase and collapse is a central element of the events referred to as “Clawdbot chaos”.
Attackers took advantage of the transition window between the Clawdbot and Moltbot identities to seize the project’s public channels. The hijacked GitHub and X accounts were instrumental in amplifying the token promotion on Solana and in coordinating rapid buying pressure. The sharp, short-lived market activity around the CLAWD token and the subsequent collapse intensified confusion among users and contributors. The incident is cited as a key example within the broader ‘Clawdbot chaos’ narrative.
Peter Steinberger publicly denied any involvement with the CLAWD token and warned that the token was a scam. He wrote, “To all crypto folks: Please stop pinging me, stop harassing me,” and made clear that he would not participate in or endorse any coin. Steinberger added, “I will never do a coin. Any project that lists me as coin owner is a SCAM. No, I will not accept fees. You are actively damaging the project.” His messages included direct requests for people to stop associating him with token projects and to cease harassment.
After Steinberger’s denial, harassment campaigns targeted him with accusations of betrayal and demands that he endorse projects. The public messages and ensuing outreach pressured him to reiterate that he would not accept fees or be listed as a coin owner. Those reactions followed the account compromises and token promotion during the rebrand gap. Steinberger later regained control of the compromised accounts.
Harassment campaigns
After Peter Steinberger publicly denied involvement with the CLAWD token, he was targeted by harassment campaigns. The campaigns included accusations that he had betrayed the project and direct demands that he endorse or become associated with other projects.
Steinberger wrote, “To all crypto folks: Please stop pinging me, stop harassing me,” and emphasized that he would not participate in token projects.
He also wrote that he would never do a coin and that any project listing him as coin owner was a scam, adding that he would not accept fees and that such associations were damaging to the project.
The harassment followed the account compromises and the token promotion that occurred during the project’s rebrand gap. Steinberger reiterated his refusal to be listed as a coin owner or to accept fees amid repeated outreach. Public messages and outreach pressured him to restate those positions. Steinberger ultimately regained control of the compromised accounts.
Security researchers found hundreds of Clawdbot instances exposed to the public internet with zero authentication. The reports described these instances as publicly reachable deployments of the Clawdbot software that required no authentication to access. This lack of authentication was documented by security teams during the sequence of events associated with the project’s name change and subsequent account compromises. The publicly exposed instances were identified as a notable security finding in the incident coverage.
The exposure was reported alongside the account hijacks and the token-promotion activity that took place during the rebrand gap. The available sources do not provide information on whether those exposed instances were used directly in the account compromises or the CLAWD token promotion. The incident record also notes that Peter Steinberger ultimately regained control of the compromised accounts. The publicly exposed instances are included in the broader description of the events referred to as “Clawdbot chaos”.
Peter Steinberger ultimately regained control of the hacked GitHub organization and the project’s X account associated with Clawdbot, later known as Moltbot. Those accounts had been hijacked during the brief transition prompted by a trademark claim on Claude, and the compromised channels were used by attackers to promote a fake Solana token called CLAWD that reached over $16 million in market capitalization within hours before collapsing. Steinberger had publicly denied any involvement with the token, warned that it was a scam, and posted messages asking people — particularly in crypto communities — to stop pinging and harassing him and to cease listing him as a coin owner or offering fees. The accounts’ recovery put the project’s public channels back under Steinberger’s control.
