The Securities and Exchange Commission's official social media account X (formerly Twitter) posted a false notice on Tuesday night claiming to have approved the listing of a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), but it has since been deleted. Shortly after, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said: Post with your own account The organization's account was “compromised, and fraudulent tweets were posted.”
The SEC followed up as follows: post He reiterated Gensler's statement. SEC spokesperson also confirmed to CNBC The account was accessed by an “unknown party.”
late Tuesday night, Unsigned posts sent from @Safety accounts “According to our investigation, the breach was not due to a compromise of X's systems. Rather, it was due to an unidentified individual gaining control of the phone number associated with the @SECGov account through a third party. Thing.”
Mandiant, a cybersecurity company owned by Google, It was just one of the high-profile accounts The company fell victim to hackers last week when their accounts were taken over to promote cryptocurrency scams that drained users' wallets.Blockchain security company CertiK also account was hijacked I posted a cryptocurrency phishing link earlier this week.
The post from @Safety does not indicate that X will adjust its security policies in light of these recent incidents.
“Today, the SEC grants listing approval for the #Bitcoin ETF on all registered national securities,” the fraudulent post sent from an SEC account read. Approved Bitcoin ETFs are subject to ongoing monitoring and compliance measures to ensure continued investor protection. ” An image of Mr. Gensler was included next to the quote, but the link to the SEC's website that usually accompanies this type of news was noticeably missing.
Screenshot by Emma Roth/The Verge
The person who compromised the SEC account also began liking posts from cryptocurrency-focused accounts expressing excitement over the SEC's erroneous approval of Bitcoin ETFs. Even though the SEC's fake post was only published for a few minutes, it still caused the price of Bitcoin to skyrocket, dropping from approximately $46,746 to $47,863. This price has since dropped to $45,633 at the time of this writing. According to data from coin deskbut then rose to $46,173.
An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a bundle of assets that functions like a mutual fund, and its shares trade on an exchange like stocks. Bitcoin ETFs make it easy for investors to speculate on the price of Bitcoin without directly owning it. This also eliminates the need to set up your own cryptocurrency wallet etc. The SEC has so far rejected all attempts at Bitcoin ETFs.
Updated January 9th at 7:15pm ET: Added new information from SEC and latest Bitcoin price.
