New York, January 10, 2024, The Europe Today: The price of bitcoin briefly spiked Tuesday after an announcement of the approval of a long-awaited bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) on X, formerly known as Twitter, turned out to be fake.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) described a social media post on its X account as “unauthorized,” adding it was hacked.
It briefly spiked more than $1,000 (€914) to almost $48,000 after the post announced, “SEC grants approval for #Bitcoin ETFs for listing on all registered national securities exchanges.”
Minutes after the initial post appeared, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler wrote on his personal X account: “The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products.”
“The unauthorized tweet regarding bitcoin ETFs was not made by the SEC or its staff,” an SEC spokesperson later told French news agency AFP.
It was unclear how the regulator’s social media account was compromised, but it appeared to regain control soon after.
