A hacker hijacked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s X account on Tuesday and issued a false statement claiming the SEC has approved spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications, whipping the crypto world into a temporary frenzy.
At 1:11pm PST on Tuesday, the SEC’s official X account announced it had granted approval for Bitcoin ETF listings on all registered national securities exchanges.
The post also included a fake quote from SEC chair Gary Gensler.
Crypto analysts and news websites gleefully shared the fake news across web, and Bitcoin’s price briefly surged above $47,600.
Gensler, however, took to X 15 minutes later to note that the post was the work of a hacker.
“The@SECGov Twitter account was compromised, and an unauthorized tweet was posted. The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products.”
The official SEC X account later deleted the hacked post and confirmed Gensler’s statements.
The @SECGov 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.
— U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (@SECGov) January 9, 2024
Bitcoin’s price has since dropped to $45,467 at time of writing.
The SEC approved the launch of the country’s first Bitcoin futures ETFs in October 2021. The regulator has so far denied all spot BTC ETF applications, though that could change very soon.
A slew of financial giants have submitted active spot BTC ETF applications, and numerous industry analysts anticipate some or all of them could be approved this week.
Fox Business reported over the weekend that BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, expects the SEC to greenlight its BTC ETF application this Wednesday, January 10th.
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