The person responsible for hacking the SEC‘s Twitter account and announcing the approval of a Bitcoin (BTC) 
$95,195 ETF has been identified. During that period, there was widespread anticipation for the SEC to approve the ETF, and the announcement caused a rapid increase in the price.
Breaking News in Cryptocurrency
In January 2024, the individual who hacked the SEC’s X (Twitter) account to share the news of BTC ETF approval was arrested in Athens. Eric Council, a 25-year-old from Alabama, was the perpetrator behind this high-profile incident. He faces charges of aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit device access fraud, as outlined in the indictment released today.
U.S. Attorney Graves stated in a recent Department of Justice announcement:
“The SIM swap schemes that deceive service providers lead to devastating financial losses for innocent victims. In this case, it is alleged that co-conspirators used unlawful access to a phone to manipulate financial markets. Through such indictments, we will hold accountable those who commit these serious crimes.”
FBI Special Agent in Charge Geist commented on the SIM swap attacks:
“The FBI works to detect, prevent, and investigate cyber-enabled fraud, including SIM swapping. This method is used by malicious actors to illegally access sensitive information of individuals or companies for criminal purposes. In this case, unauthorized actors used this method to manipulate global financial markets.”
