On Tuesday evening, the official X account of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was hacked and posted an unauthorized message stating that regulators had approved a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).
The now-deleted tweet sparked a brief rally in cryptocurrency markets before the SEC clarified that the account had been compromised. While the tweet was bogus, the knee-jerk reaction has provided insight into how cryptocurrencies may respond to future Bitcoin ETF approvals.
Well, we've got fake news on the #Bitcoin ETF approval for the third time.
This time an hack on the #SEC account.
Theory remains, upside relatively skewed, might reach $51K and then the rotation towards $ETH happens.
Atleast $48K touched and Ethereum is taking of.#BTC pic.twitter.com/onHfZ0H3Kf
— Polaris (@ElifYolaz) January 10, 2024
In particular, the price of Ethereum surged on the fake news. Ethereum volume spiked 73% to nearly $22 billion as prices reached a peak of 9.3% intraday. The major increase despite the tweet referencing Bitcoin suggests that an actual Bitcoin ETF approval could also act as a catalyst for Ethereum as traders selling the news rotate into ETH in anticipation of an Ethereum ETF approval.
“Everyone is concerned with what Bitcoin will do when the ETF gets approved,” tweeted crypto analyst Scott Melker. “Yesterday’s insanity gave us the road map… traders will rotate into Ethereum. The market has spoken.”
If cryptocurrency prices can spike based on a fake tweet, one can only imagine the potential impact of real news.
The long-awaited SEC decision on a Bitcoin ETF is expected later today. While the regulatory agency has rejected all proposals so far, many believe prospects are improving for approval.
Just based on the charts
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