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Perhaps with the intent of making a quick buck, hackers have trolled the crypto industry into believing the SEC has approved Bitcoin ETFs.
As the long-awaited date (10 January) is upon us, the crypto community is on the edge of its seat, anxiously anticipating the SEC's decision on this new basket of products.
Blockhead
Exploiting their excitement, hackers took over the SEC's X account to declare that approval was granted.
"Today the SEC grants approval for #Bitcoin ETFs for listing on all registered national securities exchange," the fake tweet read.
The post remained live for 30 minutes, causing Bitcoin to rally to a 19-month high of $47,900.
Shortly after, the SEC tweeted that its account had been compromised and it had not approved the listings. Bitcoin consequently dropped 6% to as low as $45,100.
The @SECGov X account was compromised, and an unauthorized post was posted. The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products.
— U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (@SECGov) January 9, 2024
At the time of writing, Bitcoin has returned to the $46K mark, which is still higher than it was 24 hours ago.
With Bitcoin rallying more than 140% over the year, many have speculated whether the ETF hype has already been baked into the world's leading cryptocurrency's price.
The SEC's hacked message demonstrates that Bitcoin still has some legs to run if the regulator approves the ETFs. Crypto bull Samson Mow, who has a Bitcoin price target of $1 million, believes this too.
Here’s why we’re going to $1M #Bitcoin in DAYS to WEEKS: it’s MAX PAIN pain for the most people.
— Samson Mow (@Excellion) January 9, 2024
Bitcoin has a way of doing what we least expect & in the most disruptive way. For example, at JAN3 we have many plans & meetings set for 2024. $1M BTC would derail everything.
🧵👇
That Cointelegraph Incident
In October, Cointelegraph erroneously reported that the SEC had approved BlackRock's iShares spot Bitcoin ETF. The fake news triggered a 10% surge in Bitcoin's price.
Whilst this was fake news, it revealed that the market was ready to pounce at the mere announcement of the SEC's approval.
Blockhead
Those "lucky" enough to buy ahead of the "announcement" made a decent profit if they sold before the news was debunked. It's a similar situation with the SEC hack too.
