US Senators J.D. Vance and Thom Tillis sent a letter to the Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Gary Gensler, requesting more information about the “unacceptable” hack attack that occurred on the institution’s official Twitter account.
Gensler Given Deadline Until January 23
As known, today at 00:11 EST, it was announced from the SEC’s official Twitter account that approval was given for all spot Bitcoin ETFs to be listed on registered US securities exchanges. Approximately 15 minutes after the announcement, Gensler stated that the SEC’s account had been hacked and that the institution had not approved the pending ETFs.
Following this scandal, US Senators Vance and Tillis sent a letter to Gensler stating, “These developments have raised serious security concerns about the SEC’s internal cybersecurity procedures and are contrary to the SEC’s triple mission of protecting investors, maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitating capital formation.”
Vance and Tillis requested Gensler to answer six questions regarding the incident that led to various speculations, mostly on social media, and contained elements of uncertainty.
The letter asked Gensler to clarify whether the tweet on Twitter was made by someone within the SEC and whether the security breach changed the timeline planned by the SEC to make a final decision on spot Bitcoin ETFs. Another question was whether the SEC planned to cover any financial losses resulting from the mistake.
Gensler is required to respond to the letter by January 23, 2024.
Twitter’s Security Team Confirms SEC’s Account Was Hacked
Following the incident, the SEC announced that an investigation had been initiated regarding the hacking of the institution’s official Twitter account and that they would work with law enforcement in the investigation. Twitter’s security team, which took action upon these events, announced the initial findings of the preliminary investigation in the early hours of the day. Twitter’s security team confirmed that the SEC’s account was hacked by an unidentified person, stating that the hack was carried out by gaining control of the phone number associated with the institution’s account, which did not have two-factor authentication enabled.
The SEC’s initial ETF approval announcement and subsequent statement caused Bitcoin’s price to rise to $47,950 before falling to $45,285. At the time of writing this article, the largest cryptocurrency was trading at $45,656, down 1.84% in the last 24 hours.
