Bitcoin ETFail

What a day on social media!

Besides a handful of shortlived bans on popular X accounts — and of course hedge funder Bill Ackman’s ongoing campaign against brevity — the SEC seems to have experienced a security hiccup.

Shot:

Chaser:

And the hangover:

The hack also ruined someone’s night at Bloomberg.

The original tweet stayed up a surprisingly long time (were they worried about government record retention?) but it has now disappeared. The SEC has also posted the clarification statement on its main account.

Hours later, the platform’s Safety Team account posted the following explanation, blaming “an unidentified individual obtaining control over a phone number associated with . . . @SECGov” and a lack of two-factor authentication:

This adds a bit of spice to the SEC’s coming decision about Bitcoin ETFs, which were widely expected, if not outright confirmed, to be come Wednesday. If the SEC was planning to approve the ETFs . . . do they still stick with their plan after getting frontrun by a hacker? Do they change their plans because of a hacker? Do they delay?

Enjoy the slightly elevated suspense.

Further reading
— SEC Fines Eight Firms for Deficient Cybersecurity Practices, Issues Warning About Importance of Robust Policies and Procedures and Accurate Disclosures (Clifford Chance)