Over $218 million in crypto trades have been liquidated in the past 24 hours after a fake government announcement claiming that Bitcoin spot ETFs have already been approved in the U.S.

• According to Coinglass, over $56 million in Bitcoin trades have been liquidated in the past hour alone.
  Over 72,000 traders were affected, with the largest single liquidation taking place on BTC/USD trade on ByBit for $6 million.
• The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s official X page claimed on Tuesday that approval had been granted for Bitcoin ETFs to go live on all national securities exchanges.
• However, SEC chairman Gary Gensler later claimed that the SEC’s account had been compromised and that ETFs were not approved.

The @SECGov X account was compromised, and an unauthorized post was posted. The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products.

— U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (@SECGov) January 9, 2024

• Bitcoin’s price skyrocketed to $47,800 on the news before immediately descending to $45,400 as the market digested what was going on.
• Fox Business correspondent Charles Gasparino reported afterward that the SEC would need to investigate itself for market manipulation via the fake tweet, according to input from lawyers.
• Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas theorized that the tweet was real but mistakenly scheduled a day earlier than the SEC had intended to release their approval announcement.
• Balchunas maintains that ETFs will likely go live on Thursday.