Hacked SEC tweet causes Bitcoin price to plummet

The SEC’s X account was hacked on Tuesday afternoon and an untrue tweet was sent stating Bitcoin ETF It was approved. Chairman Gary Gensler quickly tweeted from his personal account that the tweet was false and the result of a hack. Over the next 15 minutes, the price of Bitcoin surged to nearly $48,000 before quickly falling below $46,000.

“The SEC’s @SECGov X/Twitter account has been compromised,” an SEC spokesperson confirmed in an email Tuesday afternoon. “The unauthorized tweets regarding the Bitcoin ETF were not posted by the SEC or its staff.”

In a later statement, the SEC told Gizmodo that an unknown party gained unauthorized access to the SEC’s X account over a short period of time. An SEC spokesman said the unauthorized access “has been terminated” but did not provide further details. “The SEC will work with law enforcement and our government partners to investigate this matter,” the spokesperson said.

The crypto world is waiting for the SEC to approve a Bitcoin spot ETF, which could happen this week. If approved, the ETF would significantly increase investment in cryptocurrencies and mark a new era of safer, government-regulated cryptocurrency trading. Fake tweets from the SEC are enough to increase or decrease the value of Bitcoin by thousands of dollars in just a few minutes.

The following is a hacked tweet from the SEC that has been proven to be untrue and has now been deleted:

Hacked SEC account raises cybersecurity issues on X. It has become fairly common for major institutions to use the X account as the primary source of corporate communications, but this incident highlights the dangers of this practice. Alternatively, the SEC’s own X account may be less secure.

committee Tweet This was back in October, and it seems silly now: “Be careful what you read on the Internet. The best source of information about the SEC is the SEC.” It seems that even the SEC’s X account isn’t the best source of information about the SEC. Source of information.