Breaking The SEC today said its Twitter/X account was hijacked to wrongly claim it had approved hotly anticipated Bitcoin ETFs, causing cryptocurrency to spike and then slip in price.

In a now-deleted tweet shared in the past hour, the American financial regulator appeared to say: "Today the SEC grants approval for #Bitcoin ETFs for listing on all registered national securities exchanges. The approved Bitcoin ETFs will be subject to ongoing surveillance and compliance measures to ensure continued investor protection."

But in the past few minutes, the tweet was vanished. Gary Gensler, SEC chairman, then confirmed also on X that the message should not have gone out, and that no approval had been granted:

The SEC itself also confirmed the hijacking:

The @SECGov X account was compromised, and an unauthorized post was posted. The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products.

- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (@SECGov) January 9, 2024

The market has spent weeks if not months awaiting for the SEC's approval, or blocking, of spot Bitcoin ETF applications. It was due to make a decision by Wednesday. Amid that anticipation, Bitcoin has climbed 164 percent in the past year after a crypto crash at the end of 2021.

Bitcoin spiked in price to $47,900 apiece today after the first tweet, and is currently down 1.5 percent to $46,247. This is a developing story that we'll update...

https://www.theregister.com//2024/01/09/sec_bitcoin_etf_hacked/