A couple of hours ago, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced the approval of all spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange traded funds (ETFs) through its official social media account on X (formerly Twitter). Moments later, the regulator said that the post was false and it was a result of a hacking incident. X owner and CTO Elon Musk then greenlit an investigation on the matter, and now, they have an official statement on their findings.
X’s Preliminary Investigation
X’s Safety team confirmed that there was a hacking incident on the SEC account, which resulted in the controversial spot Bitcoin ETF posting. The breach was traced to an “unidentified individual” who gained access to a phone number linked to the official social media channel of the regulator through a third-party source.
The probe also exposed a major flaw overlooked by the social media managers of the agency. Their failure to activate their two-factor authentication apparently made it very easy for the perpetrator to breach their channel.
X’s Safety team encouraged everyone to secure their accounts by enabling this extra layer of security.
Was It an Inside Job?
While the incident can be conveniently dismissed as a mere lack of foresight on the persons in charge of SEC’s social media, a potential inside job or the angle of market manipulation can’t be ruled out altogether. Heads are sure to roll in the aftermath of this event as it already caught the attention of the higher-ups like US Senator Bill Hagerty. For sure, Musk will also have more to reveal about the subject later on as his team further looks into the issue.
The consensus, however, is on the watch for a potential market manipulation happening with only hours to go until the expected verdict of at least one spot Bitcoin ETF filing. The bad actors may possibly have a huge stake in Bitcoin, hence, orchestrating a hype for the digital asset to drive up its price. And surely, BTC nearly tapped the $48K range when the announcement got the attention of investors.
The degens may have also placed a “short” as they risked getting exposed and in anticipation of the resulting downward movement of BTC moments later. It should be noted that the premier cryptocurrency indeed dipped to $45K as soon as the SEC disclosed the hacking affair.
As of press time, Bitcoin is hovering around $46K as it waits for the smoke to clear. The consolation to all of these though is that we just witnessed a strong support of BTC at the $45K line, which is a major improvement since the previous trading periods of 2023 to the present.