Fake Web3 Accelerator Uses Free AI Credits and npm Packages to Deliver Malware

Researchers at Elastic Security Labs have described a campaign, tracked as REF8801, in which a fake Web3 venture capital accelerator called Apex Accelerator targeted cryptocurrency startups and founders. The group offered free AI credits for Anthropic Claude and Google Gemini, coding tools and security audits. The npm packages behind the offer delivered information-stealing malware and backdoors to both Windows and macOS machines. Elastic also reported that the operation repackaged a legitimate coding agent so model requests went through attacker-controlled services, and that its audit tools produced fabricated security findings.

Two packages were named: "@apexacc/cli", pitched as an AI advisor for Web3 founders, and "@apexacc/audit", which claimed to be an MCP server with 18 security tools for scanning tokens, wallets and smart contracts. Both were published by an npm user called "apexaccelerator" and linked to a GitHub account and an entity called the Apex Foundation. The packages and repositories are no longer accessible.

The campaign is not new. In late July 2026, SafeDep detailed three other npm packages tied to the same operation that distributed a macOS stealer from the Atomic Stealer family. Posts on X show the accelerator approaching wallet and trading tool developers with investment offers and instructions to run its due diligence tool. That npm package was found to drop an encrypted malware loader disguised as an Apple app.