US agency says account was hacked after ‘unauthorised’ post backs bitcoin

The seal of the US Securities and Exchange Commission at SEC headquarters (Andrew Harnik/AP)

The Securities and Exchange Commission said that a post sent from the US agency’s account on the social platform X announcing the approval of a long-awaited bitcoin exchange-traded fund was “unauthorised”, and that the agency’s account was hacked.

The price of bitcoin briefly spiked more than 1,000 US dollars after the post on X, formerly known as Twitter, claimed “The SEC grants approval for #Bitcoin ETFs for listing on all registered national securities exchanges.”