After the official Twitter/X account for the Securities and Trade Committee tweeted the long-awaited approval for spot Bitcoin ETFs, Chair Gary Gensler took to his private account on the social media platform to announce that the company’s had been hacked.
“The @SECGov twitter account was compromised, and an unauthorized tweet was posted,” he wrote. “The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products.”
An company spokesperson confirmed to Fortune in an electronic mail: “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.”
Monetary markets have been awaiting information of the company approving spot Bitcoin ETFs, which might give U.S. buyers the power to commerce the favored cryptocurrency within the type of shares on main exchanges. Whereas all indicators pointed to an approval coming on the shut of markets on Wednesday, a shock put up from the official SEC account appeared to announce the inexperienced gentle.
The episode represents a boondoggle for a saga that has plagued the company, which lengthy fought the approval of the funding automobile, citing the potential for market manipulation. After a landmark victory in August by the crypto agency Grayscale, one of many potential issuers for the Bitcoin ETF, in a lawsuit in opposition to the company, the SEC started to rethink the functions, which now included main gamers together with BlackRock.
Even after Gensler’s retraction, the SEC is prone to approve the functions as quickly as Wednesday, when it’s required to subject a choice for one of many potential issuers, Cathie Wooden’s ARK.
Twitter blew up with hypothesis over whether or not the errant tweet was the results of a misscheduled error or a hack. Proof appeared to level to the latter, with the SEC account nonetheless displaying latest “likes” of posts from crypto degen accounts like “Satoshi can’t believe his aim,” referencing the enigmatic founding father of Bitcoin. The SEC account additionally appeared to tweet out “$BTC” and delete it proper earlier than its faux approval put up.
Others identified the irony that the long-dreaded market manipulation appeared to come back from the SEC itself, or not less than its cybersecurity practices. “I expect @SECGov Enforcement to send the SEC’s Social Media and Cybersecurity teams a Wells Notice any minute,” wrote Gemini cofounder Tyler Winklevoss, who’s at the moment embroiled in a lawsuit with the company.
The preliminary X put up claiming the ETFs had been accredited was deleted about 25 minutes after it went up.
