The crypto world started the day with an official announcement from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) about the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs. The much-anticipated ETF announcement came in the early minutes of the day. It was declared from the SEC’s account that all spot Bitcoin ETFs had been approved, but it soon became clear that this was not true. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler announced from his personal account that the agency’s account had been hacked and that the U.S. regulator had not approved any ETFs.
Security Team Confirms Hack Attack
Following the shocking news that rocked the crypto world, a statement was soon released by the security team. The security team’s statement confirmed, “We have completed the preliminary investigation and can confirm that the SEC’s account was compromised. Our investigation has found that the account takeover was not due to any breach of our systems but was due to an unidentified individual gaining control of a phone number associated with the SEC. We can confirm that the account was compromised through a third party.” Additionally, the statement mentioned that two-factor authentication was not active for the account at the time of the hack, urging all users to enable this extra layer of security.
Crypto Community Criticizes SEC
The crypto community poured out criticism over the hacking of an institution like the SEC’s account. Harsh comments were made about the blatant manipulation of the crypto market and an institution that claims to protect investors failing to protect its own account.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse commented on the incident with a tweet, “Days like this remind me 1/ The SEC needs to investigate itself for many things. 2/ Crypto Twitter continues to be undefeated in memes.” MicroStrategy Chairman Michael Saylor also tweeted, “A Bitcoin ETF is the only thing that will be approved by the SEC twice.”
Senator Bill Hagerty also reacted to the incident, stating, “Just as the SEC would demand accountability from a publicly traded company for making a massive mistake that affects the markets, Congress also needs answers regarding what just happened. This is unacceptable.”
