2024-01-09 22:38:00
Incredibly, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) account appears to have been hacked on X (Twitter). The latter had published a false press release claiming that spot Bitcoin ETFs had been approved. We take stock of this monumental error by the SEC and what it could cost it.
Unlikely: SEC victim of hack, no spot Bitcoin ETF accepted
The market believed it for a moment: the official Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) X account released a statement claiming that spot Bitcoin ETFs had been given the green light to be launched. The price of Bitcoin was directly affected, exceeding $48,000 immediately before falling to less than $45,000 in a few moments.
Evolution of the Bitcoin price over the day
Thus, the dominance of Bitcoin fell suddenly, going from more than 55% (this had not happened since the beginning of last December) to 54%. The price of Ether, on the contrary, will have taken the opportunity to climb while all eyes are on BTC. ETH is up 3.8% over the hour, currently trading around $2,330.
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And yet, this was a communication error… or a security breach. Indeed, a few minutes later, SEC President Gary Gensler intervened on X to warn that the account of the American regulatory body had been the victim of a hack:
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.
— Gary Gensler (@GaryGensler) January 9, 2024
“The SEC Twitter account was compromised and an unauthorized tweet was posted. The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of Bitcoin spot exchange-traded products. »
An attack, really? Selon Eric BalchunasETF specialist at Bloomberg, it would rather be a tweet simply scheduled too early. Indeed, he claims that the time of publication of the tweet would have been perfect tomorrow at the same time, and would correspond more to the calendar. He even specified that he “ had heard » that the announcement should have been made tomorrow at 4 p.m. (Washington time):
“Maybe someone put out a pre-recorded tweet a day early (because I heard they were going to announce their endorsement Wednesday at 4 p.m.). »
However, some observers noted that the SEC’s X account gave likes to tweets that ordinarily might not have received likes from the US regulator. A trace which would, on the contrary, suggest a real hack.
Screenshot with the latest tweets liked by the official US SEC account
In either case, we can only highlight the amateurism of the SEC, whether it is an impersonation or a poorly timed tweet. And all the more so since Gary Gensler never misses an opportunity to call out market manipulation in the cryptocurrency sphere.
This same Gary Gensler who tweeted last October to give advice on how to properly secure your online accounts:
This is a reminder to secure your financial accounts as well as protect against identity theft and fraud.
Remember to:
????Use strong passphrases or passwords
????Set up multifactor authentication
????Keep account alerts turned on#CybersecurityAwarenessMonth— Gary Gensler (@GaryGensler) October 24, 2023
According to Fox Business reporter Charles Gasparino, the SEC will have to conduct an internal investigation for market manipulation following this error. Worse still: the SEC allegedly violated its own rules adopted in July 2023, which require “a high level of cybersecurity risk management”.
Finally, to top it all off, Elon Musk tweeted “LFGDogeToTheMoon!! » in response to another tweet asking what the password to SEC account X could be. Naturally, the price of DOGE rose as a result.
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Passionate about the world of decentralized finance and the new developments brought by Web 3.0, I write articles for Cryptoast to help make blockchain more accessible to everyone. Convinced that cryptocurrencies will change the future very soon.
Maximilien Prue
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