FBI arrests Alabama man for SEC X hack that sent bitcoin price higher

FBI agents connected Thursday greeting arrested a 25-year-old Alabama antheral connected charges related to the hack successful January of the Securities and Exchange Commission's X account, which led to the terms of bitcoin spiking by much than $1,000, the Department of Justice announced.

The man, Eric Council Jr., is charged with conspiracy to perpetrate aggravated individuality theft and entree instrumentality fraud, the DOJ said. The Athens nonmigratory is expected to look aboriginal Thursday successful U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Council is accused of conspiring with others to hack the SEC's relationship and nonstop a fake tweet successful the sanction of the agency's chairman, Gary Gensler, connected Jan. 9 that said, "Today the SEC grants support for #Bitcoin ETFs for listing connected each registered nationalist securities exchanges."

Bitcoin's terms roseate by much than $1,000 aft that bogus tweet was posted.

Shortly afterward, the SEC regained power of its societal media account, and announced the tweet was mendacious and owed to a hack.

"Following this corrective disclosure, the worth of BTC decreased by much than $2,000 per bitcoin," the DOJ noted.

The hack occurred astatine a clip erstwhile the SEC was considering whether to o.k. for merchantability exchange-traded funds that held that cryptocurrency.

A time aft the hack, the SEC approved rule changes that allowed the instauration of bitcoin ETFs successful the United States.

The DOJ said that Council is accused of utilizing a alleged SIM swap strategy to assistance propulsion disconnected the hack. SIM swaps impact a fraudster duping a cellular work supplier into fixed them power of a victim's phone.

 "The indictment alleges that Eric Council, Jr. unlawfully accessed the SEC's relationship connected X by utilizing the stolen individuality of a idiosyncratic who had entree to the relationship to instrumentality implicit their cellphone number," said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole Argentieri successful a statement.

His "co-conspirators past allegedly utilized this unauthorized entree to the X relationship to falsely denote that the SEC had approved listing Bitcoin ETFs," Argentieri said.

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