FBI Arrests Alleged SEC Hacker Linked to Fake Tweet Saying Bitcoin ETFs Were Approved

The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Thursday said it arrested a 25-year-old man for his role in the alleged hack of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s X account to falsely post the agency had approved bitcoin exchange-traded funds.

Eric Council Jr., of Athens, Alabama, conspired with others to take over the X account, according to a Thursday press release from the U.S. government. After gaining access to the account, he passed control off to unnamed co-conspirators who issued the false tweet.

01:00

Latin America’s Crypto Surge: A Battle Against Inflation

01:48

Nishad Singh’s Lawyers Ask Judge to Spare Him Prison; Italy to Raise Capital Gains Tax on Crypto

01:36

Bitcoin Jumps Above $67K to Nearly a Three-Month High

02:04

Tesla Is Moving Bitcoin; Trump-Supported Token Falls Flat

On Jan. 9, a post on SEC’s X declared “approval for #Bitcoin ETFs for listing on all registered national securities exchanges,” causing bitcoin to quickly jump $1,000 in price. The cryptocurrency then cratered $2,000 when the SEC regained control of its account, deleted the post and declared it false.

The SEC did end up approving the ETFs the next day.

Council was paid in bitcoin (BTC) for orchestrating the account takeover, according to the FBI.

Edited by Nick Baker.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *