The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Wednesday that an unidentified person had briefly accessed its X account the day before and published a false message claiming that the organization had approved the marketing of this product. unprecedented investment.
Published on : Modified :
3 mins
A short-lived boost to the price of bitcoin. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said an unidentified person briefly accessed its Stock exchange (ETF) – backed by bitcoin.
The SEC added that it had not yet approved the launch of bitcoin ETFs and that its account on X was briefly compromised after around 9 p.m. GMT.
The unauthorized access has been revoked, added the SEC, which will cooperate with law enforcement’s investigation into the hack. Social network X confirmed Tuesday that the SEC account had been compromised and said it was due to an “unidentified individual.”
The message published by the hacker announced that the SEC had approved the launch of bitcoin ETFs on American stock exchanges, while an official decision from the SEC to this effect was expected on Wednesday.
A message present for less than 20 minutes on
Two ETF managers say it’s unclear how the hack will impact the SEC’s timeline. The US financial markets regulator is due to issue a decision on a joint bitcoin ETF proposal from Ark Investments and 21Shares on Wednesday (January 10).
As of 9:11 p.m. GMT, the hacker’s post had at least one million views. Less than twenty minutes later, it was no longer visible and appeared to have been deleted.
The price of bitcoin rose to around $48,000 when the fake message was published, before falling back below $45,000 a few minutes later. The cryptocurrency then fell 3.15% to $45,513 after the SEC denied the report.
Some analysts expected bitcoin to fall if the SEC approved the launch of bitcoin ETFs, with the cryptocurrency gaining more than 70% in recent months in anticipation of such approval.
The price of bitcoin has climbed more than 150% since the start of the year
This runaway episode “gave an overview of the consequences on prices” in the event of a green light, according to Matthew Weller, analyst at Forex.com, with the sector seeing it as “an important step towards the introduction of a new wave of speculative funds in an asset whose supply is inherently limited.
Since the start of the year, the price of the first cryptocurrency by capitalization has climbed by more than 150%, driven by speculation around the creation of a new investment product, a bitcoin index fund (ETF). which would directly track the price of the digital asset.
According to analysts, this type of investment would allow a larger part of the general public to invest in this cryptocurrency without having to hold it directly.
If it takes place, its approval could “attract a significant amount of capital into the sector and should have a potentially massive impact on valuations across the sector” of cryptocurrencies, adds Ipek Ozkardeskaya, analyst at Swissquote.
With Reuters and AFP