Alabama Hacker Gets Prison Time for Hijacking SEC Twitter to Pump Fake Bitcoin ETF Approval

Another day, another crypto crime—this time with a side of regulatory embarrassment. An Alabama man just got sentenced for hacking the SEC’s official X (formerly Twitter) account to post fabricated news about Bitcoin ETF approvals. The stunt briefly sent BTC prices soaring before the inevitable crash. Classic pump-and-dump—except this one came with a federal case attached.

How’d he do it? SIM-swapping, because of course it was. The hacker bypassed the SEC’s laughably weak security (tax dollars at work, folks) to post the fraudulent announcement. Cue market chaos, frantic denials from the SEC, and yet another black eye for crypto’s reputation.

Bonus irony: The fake news accidentally predicted the future—Bitcoin ETFs did eventually get approved. Just not by some rando with a burner phone and a grift.