SEC's X account hacked, sharing 'unauthorized tweet' regarding spot bitcoin ETF

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s X account has been hacked, a spokesperson confirmed with TechCrunch on Tuesday afternoon.

“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,” the spokesperson said. A similar statement was shared shortly after on the media platform.

The post, shown in a screenshot below, was up for about 30 minutes, causing a number of news outlets and online personalities to report that the SEC granted approval for the highly anticipated spot bitcoin ETFs. The unauthorized post has since been deleted.

Around 4:30 p.m. EST, SEC Chair Gary Gensler tweeted, “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.”

After the fake post went out, Bitcoin’s price spiked near $48,000 but has since fallen to around $45,700, according to CoinMarketCap data.

On Wednesday, an SEC spokesperson told TechCrunch that it’s investigating the matter with its Office of the Inspector General and the FBI, adding that the “unauthorized content” was “not drafted or created by the SEC.”

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The article has been updated to include the SEC spokesperson’s comments on Wednesday.