According to a report from Cointelegraph, the recent news regarding the approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded products by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seems to be false. In fact, the SEC has confirmed that it has not yet granted approval for the listing and trading of such products.
On January 9th, several news outlets reported on a tweet from the official X (formerly Twitter) account of the SEC claiming that the regulator had granted approval for spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds for the first time. However, this news turned out to be inaccurate and false.
About 15 minutes later, SEC Chair Gary Gensler stated that the commission had “not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products."
Several news outlets — including Cointelegraph, Blockworks and Reuters — had initially reported on the story from the SEC before Gensler’s statement.
The report of an "unauthorized post" claiming that the commission had granted approval for Bitcoin ETFs to be listed on U.S. exchanges has raised concerns. The post, which included a photo and a faked quote from the SEC chair, has been deemed misleading and erroneous.
The SEC also pulled the initial tweet that had claimed approval for Bitcoin ETFs. However, by the time the tweet was taken down, it had already gained significant traction, scoring millions of views.
In a statement to Cointelegraph, the SEC said the unauthorized tweet "was not made by the SEC or its staff."
"The SEC’s @SECGov X/Twitter account has been compromised. The unauthorized tweet regarding bitcoin ETFs was not made by the SEC or its staff."
Several asset managers completed the final filings for their applications for a spot Bitcoin ETF, leading many to expect that the SEC would release a decision on the matter in the next two days.
While the recent social media post claiming that the SEC had approved Bitcoin ETFs was false, it does not necessarily mean that the commission will not approve a spot Bitcoin ETF in the future. Neither SEC Chair Gary Gensler nor the SEC's official Twitter account stated that the commission had made a decision on the matter.
Currently, a decision on a spot BTC ETF from ARK Invest and 21Shares is expected by today, January 10th. If approved, some experts believe that it could lead to simultaneous approvals for other asset managers as well.
Prior to the statement from SEC Chair Gensler claiming that the SEC's Twitter account had been compromised, the crypto market and users had reacted to the false news of the Bitcoin ETF approvals. The price of BTC surged by roughly 2.5% from $46,729 to $47,901 before dropping approximately 7% to $44,701.
Some social media users have suggested that the information contained in the retracted SEC tweet may have been true but made public knowledge prematurely. This speculation was fueled by the fact that the SEC's official account had "liked" two replies to the tweet from random users, which is an unusual activity from the commission.
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