The account X.com of the American financial regulator, the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), was hacked last night to falsely announce the acceptance of spot Bitcoin ETFs.
ETFs are eagerly awaited in the cryptocurrency world, as shown by the fee wars waged by large financial institutions. Suffice to say that the SEC’s X account is extremely scrutinized before January 10, the date on which the regulator must normally deliver its opinion. Sustained attention which apparently took advantage of a hacker to sow confusion among crypto bros!
SEC authorizes spot Bitcoin ETFs… or not
This is an event that will only confirm the wild west reputation of the crypto world. Last night, while digital asset enthusiasts and investors were counting down the hours until the SEC’s announcement, an unexpected announcement dropped. The financial regulator was ahead of the public, and announced in advance the validation of Spot ETFs for Bitcoin.
Obviously something to delight the entire cryptocurrency world. Except that, less than an hour later, this same public learned through the account of the boss of the SEC, Gary Gensler, that the account of the institution had been hacked to communicate this false information. No decision on ETFs has yet been made at this time!
X confirms the hack
Very quickly, obviously, Internet users expressed their anger, some ironic about the SEC’s desire to protect cryptocurrency investors, when it would not even be able to protect its account. Because, despite some skeptics, it is indeed a hack of the X account, the attack having been confirmed a few hours later by the “Security” team of the social network. More precisely, this hack would have been made possible by the absence on the SEC account… of two-factor authentication.
We can already imagine the boos about the lack of seriousness of one of the most important financial regulatory institutions in the world. Since this false announcement, the price of Bitcoin has fallen slightly, a sign of the continued confidence of capital holders in the future of the asset. It now remains to be seen whether the SEC will still announce its decision on ETFs on January 10, or whether this incident will force it to postpone its press release.
Source : Reuters
2