(New York) A fake message posted on the official account of the American market regulator (SEC), hacked, briefly caused the price of bitcoin to soar, on a very nervous market before a possible historic announcement for the cryptocurrency.
A little after 4 p.m. ET, the largest digital currency by amount in circulation rose as high as $47,914, the highest in more than 22 months, before falling again a few minutes later.
This acceleration came immediately after the publication, on the SEC’s X account, of a message indicating that the regulator had approved the highly anticipated marketing of a new bitcoin investment product, called ETF.
But a few minutes later, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler warned, also on X, that the regulator’s account had been “compromised” and that an “unauthorized tweet” had been posted there.
“This unauthorized message about the bitcoin ETF was not written by the SEC or its teams,” a spokesperson confirmed to AFP.
The market has been speculating for several weeks on the approval of this new product, an index fund or ETF (Exchange traded fund), which would offer, for the first time, investors, an investment replicating the performance of bitcoin without them having to have to directly hold cryptocurrencies.
The SEC has repeatedly rejected marketing applications for similar products in the past, but a recent development has changed the situation.
At the end of October, a federal appeals court in Washington confirmed that the SEC was not justified in refusing the approval of its bitcoin ETF to asset manager Grayscale.
A new decision from the SEC on ETFs is expected imminently, because the Wall Street watchdog has until Wednesday inclusive to rule on the oldest validation request currently under investigation, that of the investment company 21Shares.
A green light would, by all accounts, open bitcoin to a broad population of investors and accelerate the adoption of this digital currency.