xa34k-cointelegraph[.]com

Analysis of xa34k-cointelegraph.com shows an active brand impersonation campaign targeting the cryptocurrency news outlet Cointelegraph. The domain was registered on October 10, 2025 through Spaceship, Inc. and is currently taken offline, returning no HTTP response and lacking an SSL certificate. DNS resolution points to 188.114.96.3, an address owned by Cloudflare, Inc. (AS13335) located in the United States.

Nameserver records list mallory.ns.cloudflare.com and rohin.ns.cloudflare.com, confirming the use of Cloudflare's DNS infrastructure. Security telemetry indicates that three of ninety‑five VirusTotal scanners flagged the domain as malicious, and the site appears on a single external blocklist. PhishDestroy has added the domain to its blocklist, and Gridinsoft assigns a trust score of 0 out of 100, reinforcing the malicious assessment.

The page title captured during indexing reads "XA34K: Transforming the Landscape of AI-Blockchain Cryptocurrencies - Cointelegraph," directly mimicking Cointelegraph's branding and suggesting a crypto‑themed deception. While the site is offline, the combination of recent registration, Cloudflare hosting, lack of TLS, low trust score, and multiple vendor detections provides sufficient evidence to classify the domain as a crypto‑related brand impersonation scam. Defenders should block the domain at the DNS and proxy level, monitor for any future re‑activation, and update threat intelligence feeds with the observed indicators, including the registrar, nameservers, IP address, and the exact page title to improve detection of similar campaigns.