So, in the category of, "I can't make this stuff up," the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) was hilariously hacked online with spoof approval of a Bitcoin ETF. For weeks now, consternation and expectation has been swirling about the federal government finally approving the first crypto Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) for Bitcoin (BTC). The creation of one is fully expected and deemed almost inevitable. While the SEC's chairman, Gensler, has been making statements that crypto is a bad investment and shouldn't be pursued, even he knows the writing is on the wall that he's about to be steamrolled on the matter. However, given how slow government actually moves, as well as the recent spike in BTC value, it the recent gyrations have created a wonderful opportunity for degens to strike. And that they did
Da Big Fake
Apparently, someone got the bright idea of hacking or faking the SEC's X/Twitter account to spook a fake announcement of a BTC ETF approval. The BTC market immediately went wonky as a result as people and their trading bots moved all over the place to position. However, it wasn't true.
Very quickly after, Eastern time, Gensler himself tweeted the Twitter post above was fake and victim of a Twitter hack.
Always Picking Up the Rear of the Parade
While it amazes me again and again that government agencies continue to use social media as bona fide tools for public communication, exposing themselves to this sort of thing repeatedly, it was almost predictable someone was going to step in and use the pending information gap for a moment of market subterfuge.
Chart: YahooFinance!
Maybe, someday, folks will learn, but don't trust the government to lead the way.
