The “Approval of Bitcoin Spot ETF” hoax message released by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) X platform account this morning has caused a severe market shock and sparked a lot of speculation. X Security Department confirmed earlier that the official SEC account was hacked, and the associated phone number was controlled by a third party.
Table of Contents:
X Platform confirms SEC account hack
Was the source of the approval hoax message a scheduled tweet by the SEC?
Intern’s mistake?
SEC needs to investigate market manipulation on its own
The approval of the Bitcoin spot ETF application has received a high level of attention from the market as to whether it will be approved this week. At this time, the official X platform account of the SEC suddenly released a fake news of “Approval of Bitcoin Spot ETF,” causing a sharp fluctuation in the price of Bitcoin. The community criticized the SEC for being so strict on the cryptocurrency industry while having significant security vulnerabilities of its own.
Hoax tweet from the SEC.
Regarding this incident, the official X Security Team’s Twitter account, Safety, tweeted in the afternoon, confirming that the SEC account was maliciously infiltrated and that a preliminary investigation has been completed. The investigation showed that the intrusion was not due to any X system vulnerability, but because an unconfirmed individual controlled the phone number associated with the SEC account.
It is worth noting that Safety also stated that when the account was stolen, the SEC did not activate two-factor authentication (2FA), indicating insufficient security awareness. The X Security Team also encourages all users to enable this additional security protection.
Further reading:
Beware! Do not click on the phishing SMS for “Binance upgrade verification” and how to set up Binance 2FA account protection?
ZachXBT, an online detective, immediately tweeted a reminder to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler to protect his financial accounts properly and prevent identity theft and fraud.
The SEC spokesperson told Blockworks:
However, despite the official certification by X that the SEC was hacked, Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas launched a public opinion poll on the X platform asking, “Where do you think the approval tweet came from?” and found that as many as 82.3% of netizens believed that the tweet came from within the SEC, with only 16.7% considering it originated from outside the SEC. He also stated:
Anthony Scaramucci, Founder and CEO of Skybridge Capital and former White House Communications Director, also suggested that it may have been an intern’s mistake.
Crypto analyst Loma analyzed the Securities and Exchange Commission’s tweet word by word and pointed out that “Compromised” does not mean “hack” and “Unauthorized” does not mean “false.” This suggests that the SEC may have pre-edited the content for later release, but a staff member or an intern mistakenly clicked on the publish button and didn’t want to admit it, hence blaming it on a hack.
Regarding this fake news incident, FOX Business reporter Charles Gasparino stated that securities lawyers believe the SEC must investigate its alleged market manipulation behavior. If the SEC does not approve the ETF application within 10 days, it would be unprecedented, as the SEC has never rejected an application that has progressed to this stage.
Related Reports
Bloomberg Analyst: Bitcoin Spot ETF Expected to be “Approved in the Morning of 1/11,” SEC Hoax News Won’t Change Anything
SEC Veteran of 20 Years: The Commission Has Surrendered! Bitcoin Spot ETF Will be Approved
SEC’s Hidden Move! “Skipping the Vote” and Directly Approving Bitcoin Spot ETF Before 1/11?