The initial source of the leaks was the hacker group CyberLeek. The group issued an ultimatum to the game studio Rockstar, threatening to release the remaining materials if their demands were not met. The demands include: abandoning the sale of GTA 6 pre-orders, prohibiting the release of paid DLC for the single-player game, and guaranteeing perpetual access to content for the single-player campaign. Furthermore, they want Rockstar to make a public commitment to "rectify the damage caused": referring to the situation where part of the game's content is blocked and the block is only lifted for those who purchase the DLC, even though technically all content could be made available to everyone.
However, according to anonymous blockchain experts who published a study on GitHub, the hackers' ultimatum is driven primarily by financial gain, not ideological motives. Based on the authors' findings, the initial leak consisted of only two files and was sold on the darknet. Several days later, the leak was presumably purchased for a certain sum by unknown parties, after which several domains and the Cyberleek cryptocurrency token were registered.
Over three days, around 20 fake accounts poured funds into the token in comparable amounts—a classic sign of artificially pumping up the price. According to blockchain analysts' estimates, the coin's market capitalization was inflated to several million dollars so that the organizers could later sell off their assets en masse and lock in profits, leaving later buyers with devalued coins.
An additional piece of evidence cited for the fraudulent scheme is a vote for the next video, which the hackers conducted: a choice could only be made by purchasing the cryptocurrency. The winning option, to demonstrate some airplane scene, received 200 votes, while zero votes were recorded for the other options. Such an anomaly indicates artificially manipulated results, the GitHub authors assert.
An analysis of forum activity and writing style allowed the researchers to suggest that the initial hack might have been carried out by a single person aged 35–40 from northern Germany (characteristic vocabulary). At the same time, it's possible he only sold the original data, and a completely different group, pursuing purely financial goals, is handling the further distribution.
The experts discovered that almost all information published in the name of the hackers on X and Discord turned out to be fake and unrelated to the actual GTA 6. Cybersecurity specialists predict: the scheme's organizers may soon publish a "significant leak"—for example, a key scene or a hint at the plot's resolution—to maximize reach and drive the cryptocurrency's price to its peak.
Recently, anonymous blockchain researcher ZachXBT suspected BitMEX co-founder and Maelstrom Investment Director Arthur Hayes of deliberately inflating his followers' interest in the tokens of projects like Hyperliquid, Near Protocol, Zcash, and Worldcoin, and then selling off those coins. This looks like a classic "pump and dump" fraud scheme, ZachXBT believes.
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