SEC Statement on the Hack of Its X Account and the Resulting Fake Bitcoin ETF Approval Announcement

Based on current information, staff understands that, shortly after 4:00 pm ET on Tuesday, January 9, 2024, an unauthorized party gained access to the @SECGov X.com account by obtaining control over the phone number associated with the account. The unauthorized party made one post at 4:11 pm ET purporting to announce the Commission’s approval of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds, as well as a second post approximately two minutes later that said “$BTC.” The unauthorized party subsequently deleted the second post, but not the first. Using the @SECGov account, the unauthorized party also liked two posts by non-SEC accounts. While SEC staff is still assessing the scope of the incident, there is currently no evidence that the unauthorized party gained access to SEC systems, data, devices, or other social media accounts.