Feds Seek 2-Year Slammer for Hacker Who Tanked Markets With Fake Bitcoin ETF Tweet

Justice Department throws the book at social media fraudster—because nothing says ’market integrity’ like locking up the little guy while Wall Street’s algo-traders get slaps on the wrist.

The scheme: A single rogue tweet claiming SEC approval of a Bitcoin ETF sparked a $50M flash crash. Classic ’buy the rumor, sell the news’—except the rumor was a lie and the news was jail time.

Bonus irony: The same regulators dragging their feet on actual ETF approvals suddenly found urgency when someone else played the hype game better than they did.

• An Alabama citizen used a SIM swap technique to hack the SEC’s X account and post a fake Bitcoin ETF approval.
• U.S. prosecutors are seeking a two-year prison sentence for the defendant.

U.S. prosecutors are pushing for a two-year prison sentence for the individual responsible for hacking into the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) official X (formerly Twitter) account and spreading false information about the approval of a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Eric Council Jr., an Alabama resident and the defendant in the case, carried out the attack in January 2024. The incident gained national attention due to its bold nature and the level of sensitivity the platform carried.

SEC X Hack and the US Prosecutors’ Legal Action

The incident took place in January 2024, beginning with a post from the official SEC X account that falsely claimed that bitcoin ETFs had been approved. This fake post caused the price of Bitcoin to rise as it even added more than $1,000 before the post was officially taken down. 

The case carried a high level of sensitivity as officials quickly requested a warranted prison sentence for the suspect within the standard legal guidelines. They stated that Council, the 25-year-old man from Athens, Alabama, made a profit from his complex tricks that involved false IDs, dishonest behavior at different mobile service locations, and also giving out recovery codes of targeted profiles to his partners in the country and abroad.

The council also stated that he used a “SIM swap” method to break into the SEC’s X profile. Basically, he pretended to be a government staff member, and with that he tricked a phone into linking the real owner’s line to a chip card he controlled. With that number, he broke in, took the necessary login info, and passed it along to others who then made the fake post.

During the course of his trial, he admitted that he was guilty of working with others to commit identity misuse and device-related crime. 

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