Deepfake Bill Gates Video Used to Promote Dubious Cryptocurrency

A deepfake video featuring Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has been spreading on social media platforms. In the fake video, Gates warns of 'billions of people' dying due to water shortages and advocates for investing in a cryptocurrency called The United States Water Reserve.

The video is an AI-generated deepfake that was likely produced by promoters of the cryptocurrency. NewsGuard found that the video appears to be an edited version of an October 2025 segment featuring Gates on CNBC's 'Squawk Box.' An AI-generated voiceover was added, and Gates' mouth movements were altered to match the voiceover.

The United States Water Reserve claimed that buying its tokens gave holders a share of the U.S. federal water supply. However, the project shows signs of being a 'pump-and-dump' scheme, where early investors obtain many or most of the available tokens, create artificial hype to attract outside buyers, and then sell them all at once.

In July 2026, the cryptocurrency collapsed from about 3.2 cents per token to less than 0.05 cents, a 98 percent drop, as $1.6 million in value was extracted from the market. The project's website now says it is 'officially cancelled,' blaming the purported failure to pass unspecified 'proposed legislation' that would have tied the cryptocurrency to the water supply.