YEREVAN (CoinChapter.com) — Hackers allegedly compromised the X (formerly Twitter) account of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to share fake news about spot Bitcoin ETF approval. The text sent the Bitcoin (BTC) price surging temporarily only to see it fall back below $46,000 following the SEC’s clarification.
SEC Chair Gary Gensler says ETF approval fake news
News about the hack of the SEC X account came from none other than the top boss himself. Gary Gensler, the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission made a post clarifying that the previous post was fake news. He unequivocally stated that his agency had not approved a spot Bitcoin ETF.
“The SEC X account was compromised, and an unauthorized post was posted. The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products,”
Gensler wrote.
Minutes later, the agency also posted the same message on its official handle.
The blooper became a cause of much criticism for Gensler and Co. Many users pointed out how the SEC, which is supposed to ensure investor security, cannot even secure its social media accounts.
The fake spot Bitcoin ETF approval message did not skip the eye of politicians either. Since the post had manipulated the Bitcoin price, even politicians demanded accountability.
Republican Senator from Tennessee Bill Hagerty did not mince his words.
“Just like the SEC would demand accountability from a public company if they made such a colossal market-moving mistake, Congress needs answers on what just happened. This is unacceptable,”
he wrote.
Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart also posted an earlier tweet from the SEC that had asked users to rely on information coming solely from the agency. Well, this time the information was fake.
Twitter confirms the SEC account was compromised
The SEC account hack sparked a debate about the safety of X after Elon Musk’s takeover. Some pointed out that the social media giant needs to inspect its safety features to find out what went wrong.
Hit with severe criticism, the platform released an official statement on the incident. According to the post, the SEC had nobody to blame for the compromise than itself.
Someone with access to the phone number associated with the account gained access to it. Moreover, to make matters worse, the SEC did not have the basic two-factor authentication feature for extra security. This led someone to log in and make a fake post about a spot Bitcoin ETF approval.
“We can confirm that the account SEC was compromised and we have completed a preliminary investigation. Based on our investigation, the compromise was not due to any breach of X’s systems. We can also confirm that the account did not have two-factor authentication enabled at the time the account was compromised,”
the account posted.
Relations between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Elon Musk have been strained. The SEC sued Elon Musk because he refused to participate in an investigation of his acquisition of Twitter stock in 2022.
Earlier, the agency had also investigated Musk over his tweets about Dogecoin (DOGE). The recent incident around the spot Bitcoin ETF has brought their feud back into the limelight.
Meanwhile, some people believe there was no compromise at all. According to them, someone at the agency jumped the gun and spilled the bins before the due announcement. Allegedly, the official confirmation will come hours later.
