The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has denied that its staff was involved in posting an "unauthorized" tweet claiming that Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) had been approved for listing. The tweet, which was quickly deleted, caused a brief surge in the price of Bitcoin before it plunged back down.
The SEC's official Twitter account first posted a single tweet that read "$BTC." This tweet was deleted several minutes later, moments before the account posted the seemingly official announcement that a Bitcoin ETF had been approved.
The SEC has since stated that the tweet was unauthorized and that no Bitcoin ETFs have been approved. SEC Chair Gary Gensler also took to Twitter to clarify that the tweet was false and that the SEC has not approved any Bitcoin ETFs.
However, some in the crypto community believe that the tweet may have been legitimate and that the SEC is now backtracking. Cinneamhain Ventures partner Adam Cochran suggested that the SEC account may have been hacked and that the hacker may have found the tweet with the announcement graphic and Gensler quote in the draft folder.
Others have pointed out that the SEC's choice of words, "compromised" and "unauthorized," suggests that the account had not been hacked or that the post was meant to be sent later.
The SEC's "Likes" section also showed that the page had engaged with two crypto-related accounts around the same time it posted the false announcement, which is unusual for the SEC.
The price of Bitcoin (BTC) whipsawed violently following the fake approval news, spiking up to almost $48,000 before plunging back down to $45,400 within minutes, according to CoinMarketCap data.
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