SEC Twitter Account Hacked, Sends False 'Bitcoin ETFs Approved' Tweet

By Stacy Elliott

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.

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.

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.

Edited by Guillermo Jimenez.

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