SEC's X account was hacked, sparking spike in Bitcoin and raising questions about Elon's Musk platform

financialpost.com:

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said its account on social network X was “compromised,” leading to a spike in the price of Bitcoin and raising fresh questions about X’s reliability as a source of information and the strength of its security practices.

The incident, one of the most consequential breaches in years on the platform formerly known as Twitter, began with a post on the SEC’s official verified account, which inaccurately shared that the regulator had approved spot-Bitcoin exchange-traded funds — a decision that had been anticipated for later this week. The price of Bitcoin quickly shot up more than 2.5 per cent as news of the post spread online and via media outlets, including Bloomberg News, that were watching the SEC’s feed for such an announcement.

Within minutes, SEC Chair Gary Gensler jumped in from his own X account to clarify that the SEC’s post was inaccurate, even while the message remained up on X for roughly 30 minutes. “The @SECGov twitter account was compromised, and an unauthorized tweet was posted,” Gensler wrote on X. Bitcoin’s price tumbled.

The <a href=«https://twitter.com/SECGov?ref_src=» https:>@SECGov

twitter account was compromised, and an unauthorized tweet was posted. The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products.

A SEC spokesperson confirmed that there was “unauthorized access to and activity on the @SECGov x.com account by an unknown party for a brief period of time.”

“The account is secure and we are investigating the root cause,” said Joe Benarroch, head of business operations at X, in a statement.

Still, the high-profile breach comes at a time when X and billionaire owner Elon Musk are seeking to win back trust from both users