The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday said its X account was compromised, disavowing a post from moments earlier that said the agency had approved the first Bitcoin exchange-traded funds to come to market.
“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,” an SEC spokesperson said.
In a later statement, the agency said: “The SEC has determined that there was unauthorized access to and activity on the @SECGov x.com account by an unknown party for a brief period of time shortly after 4 pm ET. That unauthorized access has been terminated.”
SEC Chair Gary Gensler on X said the agency “has not approved the listing and trading of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded products.”
After briefly spiking on the post that said the ETFs were approved, which was reported by Barron’s and other publications, the price of
Bitcoin
has dropped below where it was trading before the news. As of 5:35 p.m. ET, Bitcoin’s price was $45,828, down about 2% from before the post and down 2.5% over the past 24 hours.
The SEC said it would “work with law enforcement and our partners across government to investigate the matter and determine appropriate next steps relating to both the unauthorized access and any related misconduct.”
Shortly after the incident, there were calls for an investigation into how someone breached the SEC’s official government account and caused a dramatic swing in Bitcoin’s price.
“Just like the SEC would demand accountability from a public company if they made such a colossal market-moving mistake, Congress needs answers on what just happened. This is unacceptable,” wrote Sen. Bill Hagerty in a post on X that his communications staff confirmed was authentic by email.
Around a dozen fund issuers including
BlackRock,
Fidelity, Invesco, and VanEck have applied to offer ETFs that hold spot Bitcoin. The SEC faces a Wednesday deadline to respond to an application by ARK Invest and 21Shares. ETF analysts have said they expect the agency to approve multiple applications for new funds that day.
The SEC had rejected prior applications, citing a lack of surveillance for fraud and manipulation in Bitcoin markets. A panel of federal judges last year said the SEC’s reasoning was faulty, paving the way for the potential approvals.
Write to Joe Light at [email protected]
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