Bitcoin ETF Approval Turns Into a Security Nightmare

Adekunle Joshua

On Jan 9, at 8:30 PM UTC, SEC's official account on X dropped a bombshell by announcing the approval of the eagerly awaited ETFs

SEC's account gave a thumbs up to posts expressing joy about the so-called Bitcoin ETF approval from crypto-focused accounts, triggering a market pump

On Jan 9, 9:42 PM UTC, SEC's official social media account on X posted a notice of compromise and clarified that there was no approval for Bitcoin ETFs

On Jan 9, 9:26 PM UTC, SEC Chair Gary Gensler confirmed the compromise in a post. The agency's account was hacked, and an unauthorized tweet was posted

Preliminary results on Jan 10, 3:21 AM UTC, indicate that the compromise wasn't from X's systems

An individual gained control of the SEC's account via a third-party phone number, and Two-factor authentication was not enabled