The US Securites and Exchange Commission has confirmeed that its X account was hacked and used to post spurious approval for the listing and trading of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded products.
The posting, which has since been deleted, pre-empted an imminent announcement from the SEC about whether it will approve the trading of spot bitcoin ETFs.
The fake post featured a photo of SEC chair Gary Gensler and a convincing quote: "Today's approval enhances market transparency and provides investos with efficient access to digital asset invesments within a regulated framework."
Within fifteen minutes of the post going live on X, Gensler hastily took to the platform to deny that any such approval had been given.
The incident marks a major cybersecurity bungle by the SEC, given the weight of its market signals for affecting trade movements. By the time it was deleted the post had racked up millions of views and been reported on by major media outlets, including Reuters.
In a statement, X exacerbated the cybersecurity implications of the incident by acknowledging that the SEC account didn't have two-factor authentication implemented. The regulator has been mocked on X for the oversight. The news of the compromise provoked outrage among politicians and pundits.