An unauthorized message posted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s official X account briefly sent bitcoin prices soaring, forcing the market regulator to deny it had approved a new cryptocurrency product.
Just after 4 pm local time, the price of the world’s largest digital currency in terms of circulation surged towards its highest level for more than 22 months, before falling again a few minutes later.
The jump in the price of bitcoin to almost $48,000 came immediately after the SEC published a message on its X account suggesting that it had approved the long-awaited launch of a new type of investment product, known as an ETF. But minutes later, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler took to his own X account to warn that the market regulator’s account had been “compromised” and that an “unauthorized tweet” had been posted there. “The unauthorized tweet regarding bitcoin ETFs was not made by the SEC or its staff,” an SEC spokesperson later told media.
