The U.S. Securities Exchange and the Commission cyber attack Following an unauthorized social media post on Monday, January 23, stating that the SEC had given permission to an asset management company to launch a Spot Bitcoin ETF. This was false at the time the X (formerly Twitter) post was leaked. However, the SEC issued final approval for his ETF of Bitcoin on approximately 24th. cheeklater.
The SEC determined that an unauthorized party transferred the SEC mobile phone number linked to the X account in question to another device. Although this behavior is not unusual for cyber theft, it has led the market to question the security of the SEC.
After the post, Bitcoin’s market price fell from about $48,000 to $455,000, a loss of $63 billion in less than five minutes. As of Monday’s market close, the price was $40,000.
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, an avid opponent of the crypto industry, used his personal X account to publicly deny the legitimacy of the leaked posts.
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Crypto enthusiast and White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci also criticized X in response to Gensler’s explanation. Scaramucci said:
I think Gensler is lying. An employee must have screwed up and jumped the gun and blamed it on X.
An SEC spokesperson said:
Access to the phone number occurred through the carrier, not through the SEC system. SEC staff has not identified any evidence that unauthorized parties accessed her SEC systems, data, devices, or other social media accounts.
The FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and Department of Justice are currently working with the SEC to uncover the root causes of the cyber hack.
