- The SEC chairman confirms that a spot Bitcoin ETF has not been approved, despite the commission’s X-account saying otherwise
- Chairman Gensler stated that the account was compromised, causing such a message to be tweeted
- The price of BTC drops to the $45,000 level, leading the crypto community to call for an investigation into the market manipulation
The US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) published a tweet on its official X account stating that it has approved Bitcoin ETFs. However, this is not the real situation as Gary Gensler confirmed that the committee’s social media account had been hacked.
The @SECGov Twitter account was compromised and an unauthorized tweet was posted. The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of bitcoin products traded on the spot market.
— Gary Gensler (@GaryGensler) January 9, 2024
In particular, the fake X statement spread like wildfire in the crypto market immediately after it was posted. Several influencers and developers shared positive excitement about the news published by the compromised account. The announcement reinforced positive sentiment towards receiving approval for the Bitcoin product by the end of this week.
The hacked account even included a statement under the name of SEC Chairman Gary Gensler. Contrary to Gensler’s usual stance on crypto, the statement read: “Today’s approval increases market transparency and provides investors with efficient access to digital asset investments within a regulated framework.”
Source: SEC X account
The @SECGov X account has been hacked and an unauthorized post has been made. The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of bitcoin products traded on the spot market.
— U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (@SECGov) January 9, 2024
BTC price rises after fake news about Bitcoin ETF approval
The effect of the fake news was also seen on the price of BTC, with the coin heading towards $48,000 immediately after the announcement. However, the award was withdrawn after Chairman Gensler issued a corrective statement. This even led to Bitcoin’s price dropping to $45,000 before bouncing back to the $46,000 level and falling back down.
Source: TradingView
According to CoinMarketCap, at the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $45,556 with a market cap of $891 billion. The price of the coin has registered a decline of 2.75% in the last hour. Meanwhile, the last seven-day chart was still in the green at 0.93%.
The massive shift in Bitcoin’s price has led the majority of crypto influencers to call for an investigation into its market manipulation. Cameron Winklevoss – the co-founder of Gemini – said: “It would be great if the @SECGov would stop manipulating the Bitcoin market.”