The Most anticipated event in the whole of crypto arrived earlier than expected, not from an external source, but straight out of the horse’s mouth.

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On the 9th of January (a night before the real approval date) a bad actor gained control of the official SEC`s X account and and published an approval post for the very much anticipated bitcoin spot ETFs

The Post-Read 

“Today the SEC grants approval for #Bitcoin ETFs for listing on all registered national securities exchanges. The approved Bitcoin ETFs will be subject to ongoing surveillance and compliance measures to ensure continued investor protection”

This Happened a day after the SEC Chair warned his followers about the risks of investing in crypto assets and shared concerns that asset managers might not be adhering to federal securities laws when providing crypto investment products.

Just like the SEC would demand accountability from a public company if they made such a colossal market-moving mistake, Congress needs answers on what just happened. This is unacceptable. https://t.co/tWtLqHtqpu

— Senator Bill Hagerty (@SenatorHagerty) January 9, 2024

The SEC chair in debunking the news, confirmed that the account was compromised and that the SEC has not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange traded products.

SEC did not have 2FA enabled

Upon investigation, the X Safety team revealed that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission did not have two-factor authentication (2FA) enabled on its main X account, allowing a hacker to gain access to its account. 

Read Also: SEC’s Chair, Gary Gensler Warns Against Investing In Risky Crypto Assets Could This Signal An Approval?

X’s Safety page wrote that the SEC hack occurred as a result of an unidentified actor gaining control of the phone number associated with the account, and using that to gain access to SEC’s official X page. This is more commonly known as a SIM swap hack.

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

— Safety (@Safety) January 10, 2024

US Senators Call For Accountability

Two U.S. senators, J.D. Vance and Thom Tillis, have urged the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to furnish Congress with a detailed report on the breach of the Jan. 9 X account.

In a letter addressed to SEC Chair Gary Gensler on the same day, they expressed significant apprehensions about the incident, emphasizing that it has brought into question the effectiveness of the commission’s internal cybersecurity protocols. 

The senators specifically called for the SEC to comply with a recently concluded rulemaking on cybersecurity disclosures and provide a comprehensive account of the breach to Congress.