The Crypto market was on a rollercoaster session in the late hours of Tuesday.
Crypto trades worth millions of dollars have been liquidated after a fake announcement claiming that Bitcoin spot ETFs have already been approved in the world’s largest economy.
Following the announcement on X that “The SEC grants approval for Bitcoin ETFs for listing on all registered national securities exchanges,” the price of Bitcoin momentarily surged beyond $1.5K In anticipation of the clearance, crypto buyers pushed the price of Bitcoin past $47.5K
The SEC’s @SECGov X/Twitter account has been hacked, according to a statement from a representative. The SEC or any of its employees did not send messages on bitcoin ETFs.”
A representative claimed that “unauthorized access to and activity on” the account by an “unknown party” had occurred in a different statement that was later made public. According to the statement, the party no longer has that unauthorized access.
After the unauthorized post went viral, the price of Bitcoin shot up to just about $48K then in a few minutes it fell to roughly $45,500 following the SEC’s decision. At the time this report was filed, its trading value was less than $45.9K
In the past 24 hours, 70,973 traders were liquidated, and the total liquidations come in at $216.62 million The largest single liquidation order happened on Bybit – BTCUSD valued at $6 million
- “The SEC will work with law enforcement and partners across the government to investigate the matter and determine appropriate next steps regarding unauthorized access and related misconduct,” the financial watchdog said.
The SEC.gov account did not have two-factor authentication activated, according to X’s Safety team, and an attacker was able to take control of a phone number associated with the account early on Wednesday morning
- The SEC Chair Gary Gensler also affirmed that Bitcoin ETFs were not yet permitted on his personal X account. “The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products,” he stated.
On Wednesday, it is widely anticipated that the regulator will accept applications for spot bitcoin ETFs. A representative for the SEC had earlier highlighted last week that any clearance for bitcoin ETFs would be visible on the organization’s EDGAR database; X was not provided as a channel for disseminating the news
Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder of Gemini, expressed support, saying, “It would be great if the SEC would stop manipulating the Bitcoin market.”
Additionally, US Senator Bill Hagerty has demanded responses from the SEC, pointing out the need for responsibility.
