Reuters reports:
An Alabama man was arrested on Thursday over criminal charges that he hacked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s X account earlier this year, in an action that caused bitcoin’s value to spike, federal prosecutors announced.
In January, a hacker posted false news about a widely anticipated announcement the SEC was expected to make about bitcoin, shocking the market and sending the cryptocurrency’s price spiking. The post on @SECGov said the securities regulator had approved exchange-traded funds to hold bitcoin.
Eric Council Jr., 25, of Athens, Alabama, was arrested on Thursday morning in connection with the hack, the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Columbia said in a statement on Thursday.
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🇺🇸 JUST IN: FBI arrests Alabama man for hacking the SEC’s X account in January to post a fake ETF approval. pic.twitter.com/PCyQRQNWm7
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) October 17, 2024
DDC crypto indictment: Eric Council arrested this morning, in Alabama for Jan 2024 hack of SEC’s X account & posted a fake message from SEC Chair Gensler that caused the value of bitcoin (BTC) to spike by $1,000… pic.twitter.com/cZ5JJNyrHd
— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) October 17, 2024
Hacker arrested for the fake SEC tweet that caused a Bitcoin price spike https://t.co/KDajIBYyQd
— The Verge (@verge) October 17, 2024