In a surprising turn of events, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) faced a security breach as its official Twitter account, @SECGov X, was hacked, a spokesperson confirmed with TechCrunch on Tuesday afternoon.
“The SEC’s @SECGov X/Twitter account has been compromised. The unauthorized tweet regarding bitcoin ETFs was not made by the SEC or its staff,” the spokesperson stated. A similar statement was promptly shared on the media platform.
The unauthorized post, which falsely claimed that the SEC had granted approval for the eagerly anticipated spot bitcoin ETFs, was visible for approximately 30 minutes. This led numerous news outlets and online personalities to report the apparent approval, creating a momentary surge of excitement within the cryptocurrency community. However, the post has since been deleted.
At around 4:30 p.m. EST, SEC Chair Gary Gensler took to Twitter to address the situation, stating, “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.”
Following the dissemination of the fake post, Bitcoin experienced a rapid price spike, reaching near $48,000. However, the surge was short-lived, and as per CoinGecko data, the cryptocurrency's value has now settled around $45,500.
The incident highlights the vulnerability of official social media accounts to cyber threats and the potential impact of misinformation on cryptocurrency markets. The SEC is actively investigating the breach, emphasizing that no approval for spot bitcoin exchange-traded products has been granted. This event also coincided with a minor jump in the overall crypto market cap, as digital assets experienced increased investor interest amidst the unfolding drama.
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