The announcement sent the price of Bitcoin down 2% within minutes.
The SEC approved spot Bitcoin ETFs on Jan. 9
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Posted January 9, 2024 at 4:21 pm EST.
The X account of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission was compromised on Tuesday afternoon and posted a fake tweet announcing that the agency had approved spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), according to SEC Chair Gary Gensler.
“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,” wrote Gensler.
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 fake announcement has caused price volatility for BTC. The unauthorized tweet was posted at 4:11 p.m. EST, when BTC was valued at $46,700. After briefly increasing to nearly $47,900, the cryptocurrency has since slid 2% to roughly $45,000 at the time of publication, data from TradingView shows.
The crypto community and investors have waited years for a spot Bitcoin ETF to be approved, and the decision was widely expected to come tomorrow, the final deadline for the SEC to make a decision on one of the applications.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
