The crypto industry remains poised in anticipation of the approval of the first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States. The fake news following an SEC social media account hack caused a BTC price pump and dump and a torrent of speculation.
On January 9, the X account for the US Securities and Exchange Commission was compromised, posting fake news that the spot Bitcoin ETFs had been approved.
Will SEC Delay Bitcoin ETF Approvals?
SEC chair Gary Gensler said that an “unauthorized tweet was posted,” adding that the agency has not approved the listing and trading of spot Bitcoin ETPs
The reactions from industry experts and observers were pretty wild, with speculation and conspiracy theories abounding.
Many accused Gensler and the SEC of being behind the account “hack” and called upon X owner Elon Musk to investigate.
Stock-to-flow prediction model creator, ‘PlanB’ said:
“Forget front-running, SEC insiders decided to go for full blown market manipulation, flushing all leveraged longs .. wow, just WOW,”
Meanwhile, pro-crypto Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis called for transparency:
“Fraudulent announcements, like the one that was made on the SEC’s social media, can manipulate markets. We need transparency on what happened.”
Read more: How To Prepare for a Bitcoin ETF: A Step-by-Step Approach
Tether and VanEck strategist Gabor Gurbacs also questioned, “What if this was an inside job?” “Is the only way to stop or delay a Bitcoin ETF is to create an event like this,” he added.
Bitcoin pioneer and JAN3 CEO Samson Mow tweeted that the SEC will delay all Bitcoin ETF approvals until Q2, 2024. However, this was also fake news, and the tweet has since been deleted.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas held a poll asking whether it was an inside job. More than 83% of the 12,100 respondents thought it was.
Nevertheless, fellow ETF analyst James Seyffart saw the funny side. He retweeted an SEC tweet claiming that the best source of information was the SEC.
BTC Spikes, Dips, and Recovers
Bitcoin prices spiked to $47,680 when the tweet went viral but quickly slumped to $45,415 within an hour after.
The asset is currently trading down 1.6% on the day at just over $46,000 at the time of writing.
The spike may have been a taster of what will happen if Bitcoin ETFs are approved on January 10.
However, those gambling on the outcome with a lot of leverage will be licking their wounds this morning. Moreover, it appears that Gensler, who cautioned against FOMO, and the SEC have just done the total opposite of their mission of “protecting investors.”
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