SEC Twitter 'Compromised,' Bitcoin ETFs Not Approved Chair Gensler Says After Account Said Products Greenlit

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has not approved any spot bitcoin ETF applications as of Tuesday afternoon, despite a tweet from the regulator's X (formerly Twitter) account saying they had been, the agency's chair, Gary Gensler, said.

The SEC X account "was compromised," he said on his own X account, and the regulator has not yet "approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products."

An SEC spokesperson said in an email, "The SEC's @SECGov X/Twitter account has been compromised. The unauthorized tweet regarding bitcoin ETFs was not made by the SEC or its staff."

The regulator is widely expected to approve spot bitcoin ETF applications later on Wednesday. An SEC spokesperson told CoinDesk last week that if the SEC was declaring a registration statement as being effective, it would be posted to the agency's EDGAR database.

"Any Commission 19b-4 orders will be posted on our website and then published in the Federal Register," they said.

The compromised SECgov X account tweeted "Today the SEC grants approval for #Bitcoin ETFs for listing on all registered national securities exchanges" on Tuesday afternoon. "The approved Bitcoin ETFs will be subject to ongoing surveillance and compliance measures to ensure continued investor protection."

It included a graphic with a quote purportedly from Gensler. The account also posted a second tweet that just said "$BTC," but this post was almost immediately deleted.

Bitcoin [BTC] first jumped to nearly $48,000 immediately after the social media post, then plummeted nearly 6% to $45,100 when the news turned out to be false.

The volatile period wiped out over $50 million of leveraged derivatives trading positions within an hour, CoinGlass data shows.

Krisztian Sandor contributed reporting.

UPDATE (Jan. 9, 2024, 21:40 UTC): Adds additional detail.

UPDATE (Jan. 9, 21:50 UTC): Adds graphics, context on where an ETF approval may actually appear.