Odaily Planet Daily News Eric Council Jr, a 25-year-old man from Alabama, admitted to participating in the hacking of the "X" account of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In January last year, he posted a false post on the platform announcing the authorization of the first (spot) Bitcoin ETF. Council pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud in a federal court in Washington on Monday.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson is scheduled to pronounce the verdict on May 16. Prosecutors accused Council of using forged identification and deceiving a local mobile phone store employee to help him hack into the victim's phone. The day before the SEC account was hacked, analysts expected the SEC to announce the approval of the spot Bitcoin ETF. The fake post posted by the hacker on January 9, 2024 caused the price of Bitcoin to soar. Subsequently, the SEC confirmed that the announcement was unauthorized, and the price of the cryptocurrency fell immediately. The next day, the SEC officially announced the approval of the spot Bitcoin ETF. (Bloomberg)