The Twitter accounts of celebrities, companies and politicians were reportedly hacked tonight in what has been described as a 'wide-ranging' cyber attack.
The accounts of Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos were all reported to have been compromised.
US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's account was reportedly hacked, with the accounts of Apple, Uber and hip hop mogul Kanye West also said to have been hit.
Rogue messages referencing Bitcoin were sent from their accounts to their followers.
Twitter reported a 'security incident'.
The feared hack targeted verified, high-profile individuals and companies, commentators said.
The tweets appeared to promote the cryptocurrency - and were all virtually the same.
They requested money should be sent to an address.
A tweet appearing on Kanye West's account was quoted as saying: "I am giving back to my fans.
"All Bitcoin sent to my address below will be sent back doubled.
"I am only doing a maximum of $10,000,000."
Elon Musk's account tweeted: "Giving back to my community!
"All Bitcoin sent to my address below will be sent back doubled.
"If you send $1,000, I will send back $2,000!
"Only doing this for the next 30 minutes! Enjoy."
Twitter is said to be looking into the situation.
The BBC reported it would be issuing a statement soon.
Twitter tweeted: "We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter.
"We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly."
The majority of accounts affected deleted the tweets within minutes.
