The official U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Twitter account was apparently "compromised" Tuesday when it tweeted that the long awaited Bitcoin ETF had been approved. The tweet caused the price of BTC to briefly spike, before settling back down.
For a brief moment, Bitcoin shot as high as $47,680.10 before retracing those gains. But it didn't stop there. It's since plunged further to $45,627.92, according to CoinGecko.
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.
It was SEC Chair Gary Gensler who, minutes after the erroneous SEC tweet went out from the main account at 4:11 p.m. EST, debunked the news with his own tweet.
"The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products," Gensler said on Tuesday afternoon.
The agency then issued an official statement of its own.
"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," an SEC spokesperson told Decrypt.
As it stands, there are 11 spot Bitcoin ETF applicants with pending S-1 registrations awaiting a decision from the SEC. The past 48 hours have included multiple amendments from almost all of the firms vying to offer a Bitcoin ETF to U.S. investors. Analysts have said it's a sure sign that the SEC has been in intense back-and-forth discussions with applicants, such as BlackRock, Fidelity, and WisdomTree, about lingering concerns over their offerings.
At the moment, the SEC has until the end of the day on Wednesday, January 10, to issue a ruling on the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF application. It's widely believed that the regulator will take action on all—or at least more than just one—filing by that deadline, which could mean that multiple Bitcoin ETFs begin trading at the same time.
Source: Twitter screenshot
Even before the securities regulator sent its own official statement about the fake tweet, the meme-happy crypto masses on Twitter were quick to break the tension with some humor.
#Bitcoin will be the only thing ever approved twice by the @SECGov.
There were scores more that took the opportunity to ironically quote an October warning from the SEC to not believe everything you read on the internet. "The best source of information about the SEC is the SEC," it said.
Careful what you read on the internet. The best source of information about the SEC is the SEC.
— U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (@SECGov) October 16, 2023
Crypto exchange OKX has temporarily halted its decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator in response to security concerns and recent “attacks” targeting its platform.
The exchange announced the pause on Sunday, citing the need to address incomplete blockchain tagging and implement new security features to prevent misuse by malicious actors.
We are temporarily pausing our DEX aggregator to address incomplete tagging on blockchain explorers while we also roll out new security features. This is to...
Ethereum is preparing for its Pectra upgrade, which aims to boost the network’s scalability and offer better staking flexibility, by launching a testnet on Monday codenamed Hoodi. This comes after two previous testnets, Holesky and Sepolia, encountered technical issues.
If all goes to plan, it could hit mainnet as early as April 25.
The second largest cryptocurrency’s price appears unmoved by this news. Over the past 24 hours, the Ethereum price has gained only 0.5% and is currently trading at j...
New research from the European Central Bank suggests that public awareness about plans for a digital euro has increased substantially—but this hasn't been matched by a rise in the number of consumers interested in using it.
About 19,000 households across 11 EU countries took part in the study, which exposed one of the biggest roadblocks to adoption: Many of those polled are perfectly happy with the payment methods they already use.
Participants shown a video explaining the key benefits of this c...
