Here’s the timeline of events:
Yesterday afternoon, the @SECGov twitter account gets hacked, falsely claiming that bitcoin ETFs have been approved
Seconds later, bitcoin surges, wiping out people who have used options to short bitcoin
A whole 15 minutes later, Gary Gensler and the SEC announced the hack, reversing the claim
Seconds later, bitcoin conversely falls, also wiping out people who have used options to go long on bitcoin
this was the #bitcoinETF approval tweet that was just removed from @SECGov...
— #luke (#@lukesidney_)
9:40 PM • Jan 9, 2024
End result? A total clown show of SEC cybersecurity that imposed billions of pointless losses on investors. 🤡
Following the news, Twitter’s safety team did a preliminary investigation into the compromised account, stating:
The compromise was not due to any breach of X’s systems but rather due to an unidentified individual obtaining control over a phone number associated with the @SECGov account through a third party.
Turns out that the SEC’s account did not have 2FA enabled at the time of the hack, a security measure that Sir Gensler had previously recommended as protection against identity theft and fraud.
Ohhh, only in crypto… they say.
So far, the motives behind the attack are unknown. Regardless, the level of irony in all of it is nothing short of remarkable.
We may be wrong, but we like to think of the hack as more of a symbolic act. Someone hacks the SEC… on the Eve of Wall Street’s grand welcoming… innocently hash-tagging bitcoin along the way… and causing a quick stir in markets. It doesn’t get any better than that.
Perhaps it’s a reminder that the cyberpunks, who came long before bitcoin, still have a seat at the table.
