Laughing Out Loud: SEC Account Gets Compromised, Embarrasses Itself Making BTC ETF Announcement

The X account of SEC got compromised, and they made an announcement about Bitcoin ETF. Check out the outrageous event below.

It has been reported by mainstream media, including Reuters, that the U.S. securities regulator has confirmed that on Tuesday, an unauthorized individual briefly accessed its X social media account and posted a fake message.

The message claimed that the regulator had approved exchange-traded funds (ETF) for Bitcoin, a move that the crypto industry has been eagerly anticipating.

However, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it has not yet approved spot bitcoin ETFs and its account on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, had been compromised briefly by an unknown party after about 4 p.m. Eastern time (2100 GMT). The “unauthorized access has been terminated,” the agency said.

The SEC has announced that it will collaborate with law enforcement to investigate the hack and any associated behavior.

On Tuesday, X confirmed that the SEC’s account had been compromised and stated that this was due to an “unidentified individual” gaining control of a phone number linked to the agency’s account through a third party.

We can confirm that the account @SECGov was compromised and we have completed a preliminary investigation. Based on our investigation, the compromise was not due to any breach of X’s systems, but rather due to an unidentified individual obtaining control over a phone number…

— Safety (@Safety) January 10, 2024

Reuters press agency noted the fact that the unauthorized post said the SEC had granted approval for bitcoin ETFs on all registered national securities exchanges and included a picture purporting to quote SEC Chair, Gary Gensler.

The price of Bitcoin rose after the post, which was picked up by Reuters and other news media that monitor the SEC’s account.

At the moment of writing this article, BTC is trading in the red, and the king coin is priced at $45,632.