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Bitcoin jumps briefly as SEC X account 'compromised'

written by Bella Palmer
bitcoin

Bitcoin climbed to around $48,000 immediately after the erroneous post before dropping back to nearly $46,000

Bitcoin jumped briefly on Tuesday after a post on the US markets regulator's X account (formerly Twitter) said it had approved new ETFs in the crypto currency.

The SEC later deleted the post and said its account had been "compromised".

The social media platform has said the compromised account was not due to a breach of its systems.

US regulators are expected to make an announcement on the new exchange traded funds this week.

The false post appeared on the Securities and Exchange Commission's official X account shortly after 21:00 GMT.

It said the regulator "grants approval for #Bitcoin ETFs for listing on all registered national securities exchanges".

The post was immediately picked up and quoted by social media users and business news outlets.

Within minutes the SEC's chair Gary Gensler posted a message disproving the incorrect announcement on his personal X account: The @SECGov twitter account was compromised, and an unauthorized tweet was posted. The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange traded products.

Later on Tuesday, X said it had completed a preliminary investigation into the false post on the SEC's account and found that it was not because of a breach of the social media platform's systems.

We can confirm that the account @SECGov was compromised and we have completed a preliminary investigation, X added.

Based on our investigation, the compromise was not due to any breach of X's systems, but rather due to an unidentified individual obtaining control over a phone number associated with the @SECGov account through a third party, it said.

We can also confirm that the account did not have two-factor authentication enabled at the time the account was compromised, it added.

Bitcoin climbed to around $48,000 immediately after the erroneous post before dropping back to nearly $46,000.

Investors are hotly anticipating an SEC announcement on the potential approval of spot bitcoin exchange traded funds, which is expected this week.

It would mark a key milestone for the crypto currency market in gaining acceptance to mainstream financial markets.

Several asset management companies have applied for SEC approval for spot Bitcoin exchange traded funds.

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