During this period, the price of Bitcoin skyrocketed by more than 15% within minutes due to a fraudulent tweet falsely claiming that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had approved spot Bitcoin ETFs. At its peak, Bitcoin reached approximately $48,000 but swiftly dropped to below $45,000 within half an hour.
This misleading tweet from the SEC prompted a cascade of liquidations, resulting in more than $900 million worth of long positions being closed within the next 24 hours. As of Wednesday afternoon, January 10th, Bitcoin’s market capitalization stands at $887 billion, and its market price ranges between $45,370 and $45,600 per BTC.
Over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin’s market value has decreased by around 2.5%. However, on a weekly basis, the asset has still managed to demonstrate a growth of approximately 4%.
The incident has generated criticism from participants in the digital asset market towards the SEC. As an organization that presents itself as safeguarding investors from digital scams, the SEC itself has failed to implement basic security measures, such as two-factor authentication for its Twitter account. The SEC has not commented on whether an investigation into the compromised account has commenced or if this incident will impact the approval timeline for spot Bitcoin ETFs.