Crypto Market Suffers $218 Million In Liquidations As Bitcoin Price Rollercoasters On Fake SEC Tweet

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.