On January 9, the X account of a federal agency was compromised, leading to a false announcement that spot Bitcoin ETFs had been approved. The following day, X Support confirmed the hack, stating that an unidentified individual had gained control over a phone number associated with the SEC account through a third party. The agency clarified that there was no breach of X systems.
The incident highlighted the agency’s security failures, as it was revealed that the compromised account did not have two-factor authentication (2FA) enabled. This revelation sparked widespread criticism and ridicule. Bitcoin podcaster ‘Walker’ criticized the agency for failing to protect its own X account with basic 2FA, while industry analyst ‘Foobar’ pointed out the irony of the agency’s technical skills being compromised on a platform run by Elon Musk, who is known for his lack of respect for the SEC.
Blockchain expert ‘ZachXBT’ retweeted a post from Gary Gensler, the head of the agency, advocating for people to secure their accounts and use 2FA, highlighting the agency’s failure to follow its own advice. The incident also led to accusations of recklessness and irresponsibility, as well as speculation and conspiracy theories, including accusations of an inside job and potential further delays.
Many in the crypto industry accused the SEC of being responsible for the fake news and of market manipulation. The incident had a significant impact on Bitcoin prices, which spiked to $47,700 following the fake announcement and then slumped to just over $45,000 after the hack was revealed. More than $200 million in crypto positions were liquidated over the past 24 hours due to the incident, according to Coinglass. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down 1.8% on the day but had recovered to trade at $46,124.
This News Article was automatically generated by Bob the Bot (AI)
| Information | Details |
|---|---|
| Geography | North America |
| Countries | |
| Sentiment | negative |
| Relevance Score | 1 |
| People | Gary Gensler, Elon Musk |
| Companies | Coinglass, Binance Futures, Securities and Exchange Commission |
| Currencies | Bitcoin |
| Securities | None |
