The Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday that a social media post on
The markets regulator said its staff “will continue to evaluate whether additional remedial measures are warranted” following the hack that occurred on Tuesday and raised questions about cybersecurity at both the agency and the social media platform, formerly known as Twitter.
The agency said it is coordinating with law enforcement on the matter, including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.
“The SEC staff is still assessing the impacts of this incident on the agency, investors, and the market, but recognizes that those impacts include concerns about the security of the SEC’s social media accounts,” the SEC said in a statement.
The confusion began Tuesday afternoon, when the hacked post appeared The SEC's X account.
“Today, the SEC grants approval for #Bitcoin ETFs to be listed on registered national securities exchanges,” the post read. “Approved Bitcoin ETFs will be subject to ongoing monitoring and compliance measures to ensure investors continue to be protected.”
A second post appeared two minutes later that simply read “$BTC,” the SEC noted in its statement. The unauthorized user quickly deleted that second post, but also liked two other posts from non-SEC accounts, according to the agency. Bitcoin price BTCUSD,
It rose sharply in the wake of the posts, before soon falling.
In response to the hack, SEC staffers posted on SEC Chairman Gary Gensler's official X account advertisement The agency's main account has been hacked, and it has not yet approved any exchange-traded products in Bitcoin. The employees then deleted the initial unauthorized post, unliked posts they liked and used their official SEC account to do so. Create a new job The agency said on Friday to clarify the situation.
The SEC also said it reached out to
“While SEC staff is still assessing the scope of the incident, there is currently no evidence that the unauthorized party gained access to other SEC systems, data, devices, or social media accounts,” the agency said.
The next day, the SEC announced that it had in fact approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin ETFs.
Wednesday's move represents a breakthrough for the cryptocurrency industry, which has tried for years to launch such ETFs in hopes of attracting more traditional investors to the digital asset space.
Bitcoin is down 7.6% over 24 periods as of Friday evening.
