It was the craziest week crypto has had in a long time. And that’s saying quite a lot.
After months of escalating anticipation, the crypto community entered this week expecting it to finally—after years of waiting—deliver the first approved spot Bitcoin ETFs in Wall Street’s history.
Nerves were at an all time high, with potentially trillions of dollars worth of asset exposure to Bitcoin on the line. Then, a full day before analysts predicted the verdict would arrive, a post on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Twitter account announced that every single pending spot Bitcoin ETF application on its desk had been approved.
Crypto Twitter exploded with jubilant euphoria. BTC began pumping. Then, in less than ten minutes, SEC chairman Gary Gensler posted a Tweet asserting that the agency’s account had been hacked.
The @SECGov twitter account was compromised, and an unauthorized tweet was posted. The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products.
— Gary Gensler (@GaryGensler) January 9, 2024
After several more minutes minutes of jarring confusion, the truth became clear: the ETF approval tweet—as official as it had looked—was a total phony.
Joy turned to grief in an instant; gains for BTC instantly soured as the cryptocurrency began to plunge. Crypto users were stunned: not just at the whiplash of the afternoon’s events, but at the seemingly naked hypocrisy of the SEC, which had routinely admonished companies under its purview to enact stringent cybersecurity measures, but apparently had failed to institute those measures itself.
We can confirm that the account @SECGov was compromised and we have completed a preliminary investigation. Based on our investigation, 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…
— Safety (@Safety) January 10, 2024
Twitter users oscillated between mocking the incident and worrying that it could somehow negatively impact the spot Bitcoin ETF applications before the SEC.
Just 24 hours later, braced to analyze breaking news more cautiously, denizens of Crypto Twitter began hearing rumblings that the spot Bitcoin ETFs had, in fact, been approved—and this time, the real proof was listed on the SEC’s website.
But confusion reigned once again when the SEC’s website crashed moments later, leaving many panicked.
Alas, though, relief came just minutes later when the news was confirmed: in a historic action, the SEC had in fact approved ten spot Bitcoin ETFs, permanently changing the cryptocurrency’s relationship to traditional finance and the American economy.
The celebration continued into Thursday, with the competing ETFs debuting with impressively high volumes.
But after all the thrilling, dizzying ups and downs, by the week’s end the dust had settled. The Bitcoin ETFs were chugging along just fine, and many degens found themselves scratching their heads as to what—after months of breathless fixation—they should care about next.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
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