xa31k-cointelegraph[.]com

Analysis of xa31k-cointelegraph.com shows a newly registered domain (creation date 10 October 2025) that leverages the recognizable "cointelegraph" brand in its name while promoting an unrelated "XA31K ICO" in the page title "Elon Musk Officially Launchs XA31K ICO." The domain lacks an SSL certificate, indicating that any traffic would be unencrypted. DNS resolution points to IP address 188.114.97.3, which is owned by Cloudflare, Inc. (ASN 13335) and geolocated to the United States. The registrar listed is NiceNIC International Group Co., Limited, and the authoritative name servers are eric.ns.cloudflare.com and vita.ns.cloudflare.com, both standard Cloudflare endpoints.

Security telemetry indicates that 13 of 95 VirusTotal scanners flagged the domain, and it appears on one external blocklist. Gridinsoft assigns a trust score of 0 out of 100, and PhishDestroy has reported the site as blocked. AlienVault OTX references the domain in a single threat pulse, reinforcing the suspicion of malicious intent.

The overall risk is elevated, and the current operational status is offline, which may be the result of takedown actions or temporary hosting changes. Defenders should continue to monitor the associated IP address for any reactivation, enforce outbound filtering for the domain, and consider adding the domain to internal blocklists. Since the page content beyond the title has not been publicly analyzed, further investigation is needed to confirm the exact phishing mechanisms, but the existing indicators—brand impersonation, low trust score, multiple vendor detections, and blocklist presence—strongly suggest a fraudulent campaign targeting users interested in cryptocurrency and high‑profile personalities such as Elon Musk.