SEC’s X Account ‘Compromised’ With Fake Post Approving Bitcoin ETFs

The official account for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on X, formerly known as Twitter, was “compromised” on Tuesday after officials failed to properly secure the account — allowing hackers to make a post announcing the approval of bitcoin exchange-traded funds, or ETFs.

The SEC has since regained control of the account, sending out a post confirming the account had been “compromised” and that it had “not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products.”

SEC Chair Gary Gensler made the same announcement from his official X account.

The initial post from the unidentified hackers came amid widespread anticipation that the SEC was planning to approve bitcoin ETFs — causing a brief spike in the cryptocurrency’s price on the stock market followed by a sharp drop in price as people learned that the post was fake.

“Today the SEC grants approval for #Bitcoin ETFs for listing on all registered national securities exchanges,” the since-deleted post read, according to a screenshot. “The approved Bitcoin ETFs will be subject to ongoing surveillance and compliance measures to ensure continued investor protection.”

Initially, it was unclear how the hack occurred and the SEC issued a vague statement about there being “unauthorized access” on the account — leaving it unclear to the public whether the hack had occurred through X or through an issue with the government.

“The SEC has determined that there was unauthorized access to and activity on the @SECGov x.com account by an unknown party for a brief period of time shortly after 4 pm ET. That unauthorized access has been terminated. The SEC will work with law enforcement and our partners across government to investigate the matter and determine appropriate next steps relating to both the unauthorized access and any related misconduct,” an SEC spokesperson wrote in the statement.

However, X’s Safety Team soon clarified the matter in a post, revealing that the social media platform was not at fault for the hack — as the SEC had not even taken basic precautions to protect their account.

“We can confirm that the account @SECGov was compromised and we have completed a preliminary investigation. Based on our investigation, the compromise was not due to any breach of X’s systems, but rather due to an unidentified individual obtaining control over a phone number associated with the @SECGov account through a third party. We can also confirm that the account did not have two-factor authentication enabled at the time the account was compromised,” the post read.

The revelation prompted concern from consumers, who pointed out that the “SEC can’t figure out how to secure their social media accounts, but is in charge of securing our money.”

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers are already calling for accountability and transparency from the SEC.

“Just like the SEC would demand accountability from a public company if they made such a colossal market-moving mistake, Congress needs answers on what just happened. This is unacceptable,” Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) wrote.

“Fraudulent announcements, like the one that was made on the SEC’s social media, can manipulate markets. We need transparency on what happened,” Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) wrote.

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