SEC should be held accountable for X account compromise: US senator says

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s market-moving social media account compromise Tuesday afternoon has already caught the attention of US lawmakers. 

Senator Bill Hagerty, R-TN, said the SEC needs to be held accountable for making “such a market-moving mistake” in a post on X on Tuesday.

Hagerty’s post came an hour after the SEC’s official X account posted that bitcoin ETFs had been approved. That announcement ultimately proved false, the result of the account being “compromised,” according to an SEC spokesperson.

“Fraudulent announcements, like the one that was made on the SEC’s social media, can manipulate markets. We need transparency on what happened,” Senator Cynthia Lummis, R-WY, posted on X.

 The incident also came a day before the House Financial Services Committee’s digital asset subcommittee is scheduled to meet to discuss the “ever-changing” status of digital asset regulation in the US. 

The post, which sent markets soaring before prices fell after the SEC clarification, left some wondering whether the SEC will proceed with approving bitcoin ETFs on Wednesday.

An approval had been expected by issuers such as VanEck and Valkyrie, which made public statements on that front earlier Tuesday. 

The SEC has to make a decision on a spot bitcoin ETF proposal from Ark 21Shares by Wednesday, and many believed that the back and forth between issuers and the SEC along with the “unusual” yet quick turnaround times on registration statement documents meant that the commission was ready to approve the bitcoin ETFs. Such products have previously been denied by the agency.

Hagerty’s response follows a slew of meme posts from X users poking fun at the event. Some even uncovered past X posts from the SEC and Gensler themselves.

“Careful what you read on the internet. The best source of information about the SEC is the SEC,” the SEC posted back in October.

Updated Jan. 9 at 6:30 pm ET: Added X post from Cynthia Lummis.

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