The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said Wednesday that it is working with the FBI to investigate a fake message posted on its X social media account.
On Tuesday hackers posted false news about a widely anticipated announcement that the SEC was expected to make about bitcoin, leading the cryptocurrency’s price to spike and alarming observers. An SEC spokesperson confirmed to the Guardian in a statement that the unauthorized post on the @SECGov account “was not drafted or created by the SEC”.
“The SEC continues to investigate the matter and is coordinating with appropriate law enforcement entities, including the SEC’s Office of the Inspector General and the FBI,” the spokesperson said. The FBI did not immediately respond to request for additional comment.
X confirmed later on Tuesday, following a preliminary investigation, that the SEC’s account had been compromised because an unidentified individual gained control via a phone number associated with the account through a third party.
The false post on @SECGov said the securities regulator had approved exchange-traded funds to hold bitcoin. The widely anticipated move has been expected to give bitcoin more mainstream integration and boost investment – and the initial SEC tweet caused bitcoin’s price to spike nearly $48,000.
The SEC deleted the post about 30 minutes after it appeared, and the SEC chair, Gary Gensler, confirmed in a post shortly afterwards that the agency’s account had been compromised and that the tweet was “unauthorized”. “The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products,” he said.
However, on Wednesday the SEC did approve 11 spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds. The approval is a gamechanger for bitcoin, offering institutional and retail investors exposure to the world’s largest cryptocurrency without directly holding it, and a major boost for a crypto industry beset by a string of scandals such as the blockbuster trial and conviction of the FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and money laundering at cryptocurrency giant Binance.
“Retail investors seeking exposure to bitcoin now have much easier and more direct access to the asset through many of the top financial institutions,” said Perianne Boring, the founder and CEO of cryptocurrency and blockchain advocacy group the Chamber of Digital Commerce. “This alone is a transformational event for hundreds of millions of investors and the bitcoin community.”
Reuters contributed to this story
