A 26-year-old man from Alabama has been sentenced to greater than a 12 months in jail for his function in a social media hack that briefly despatched the worth of bitcoin

hovering.

Eric Council Jr. of Huntsville pleaded responsible to costs tied to the January 2024 hack of the U.S. Securities and Trade Fee’s X account, in response to a U.S. Division of Justice press launch.

Posing as a telecom buyer utilizing a fraudulent ID, Council used a SIM-swap approach to hijack a cellphone quantity tied to the SEC’s account. His co-conspirators then used it to falsely submit that the company had authorised spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), a long-awaited regulatory milestone.

Inside minutes, the worth of bitcoin surged by greater than $1,000. It crashed quickly after, shedding greater than $2,000 in worth as soon as the submit was revealed as faux. The SEC did later that month approve the launch of spot bitcoin ETFs.

Authorities say Council was paid in bitcoin for his function. He’ll serve 14 months in jail adopted by three years of supervised launch.

Federal prosecutors referred to as the assault a calculated try to govern monetary markets. “The deliberate takeover of a federal company’s official communications platform was a calculated prison act meant to deceive the general public and manipulate monetary markets,” mentioned Appearing FBI Assistant Director Darren Cox. “By spreading false data to affect the markets, Council tried to erode public belief and exploit the monetary system”