The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday said that a social-media post on X falsely stating that it had approved spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds was created after an “unauthorized party” obtained control over the phone number connected with the agency’s account on the platform.
The markets regulator said its staff would “continue to assess whether additional remedial measures are warranted” in the wake of the breach, which occurred Tuesday and raised questions about cybersecurity at both the agency and the social-media platform, formerly known as Twitter.
The agency said it was coordinating with law enforcement on the matter, including with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.
“Commission staff are still assessing the impacts of this incident on the agency, investors, and the marketplace but recognize that those impacts include concerns about the security of the SEC’s social media accounts,” the SEC said in a statement.
The confusion began on Tuesday afternoon, when the hacked post appeared on the SEC’s X account.
“Today the SEC grants approval for #Bitcoin ETFs for listing on registered national securities exchanges,” the post read. “The approved Bitcoin ETFs will be subject to ongoing surveillance and compliance measures to ensure continued investor protection.”
A second post appeared two minutes later that simply read “$BTC,” the SEC noted in its statement. The unauthorized user soon deleted that second post, but also liked two other posts by non-SEC accounts, according to the agency. The price of bitcoin
BTCUSD,
-0.52%
rose sharply in the wake of the posts, before soon pulling back.
In response to the hack, SEC staff posted on the official X account of SEC Chair Gary Gensler announcing that the agency’s main account had been compromised, and that it had not yet approved any spot bitcoin exchange-traded products. Staff then deleted the initial unauthorized post, un-liked the liked posts and used the official SEC account to make a new post clarifying the situation, the agency said Friday.
The SEC also said that it had reached out to X for assistance Tuesday in the wake of the incident, and that agency staff believe the unauthorized access to the SEC’s account was “terminated” later in the day.
“While SEC staff is still assessing the scope of the incident, there is currently no evidence that the unauthorized party gained access to SEC systems, data, devices, or other social media accounts,” the agency said.
The following day, the SEC announced that it had, in fact, approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin ETFs.
Wednesday’s move marked a breakthrough for the crypto industry, which for years has tried to get such ETFs off the ground in hopes of drawing more traditional investors to the digital-asset space.
Bitcoin was down 7.6% over a 24-period as of Friday evening.
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