Paraguay president's X account hacked in bitcoin scheme

Paraguay's government says President Santiago Pena's X account has likely been hacked after the leader appeared to promote trading of cryptocurrency bitcoin.

"The president's official X account has presented irregular activity which suggests possible unauthorised entry," the government said in a statement.

A post on Pena's account in English, with a Spanish-language statement purporting to be from the government, had declared that the Latin American country had made Bitcoin legal tender and that it would roll out a $US5 million ($A7.7 million) Bitcoin-backed reserve fund.

The government asked citizens to ignore posts from the account until official confirmation was made available.

Paraguay's national cybersecurity team was working with X to investigate the situation, the government added.

X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.