News
Bitcoin (BTC) Price Swings Wildly as Fake SEC Post on Bitcoin ETF Approval Liquidates $50 Million
Bitcoin (BTC) experienced wild swings during Tuesday’s trading session when a social media post from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) concerned the approval of bitcoin spot Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) turned out to be falseleaving market operators perplexed.
BTC first rallied 2.5% to a new 19-month high of $47,900 soon after the SEC’s official account on X (formerly Twitter) shared the bitcoin ETF approval, attracting a Enormous attention from crypto observers prematurely celebrating the historic decision.
Bitcoin subsequently fell sharply by nearly 6% to $45,100 when it was discovered that the SEC account had been compromised and SEC Chairman Gary Gensler denied the report.
The wild price action liquidated derivatives trading positions on cryptocurrency exchanges worth more than $50 million in an hour, CoinGlass data shows. Liquidations occur when an exchange forcibly closes a trader’s open position using borrowed money due to margin loss.
Recently, as of this writing, BTC changed hands slightly below $46,000, down about 2% over the past 24 hours.
This was the second instance during the day where a fake social media post triggered huge volatility. Last Tuesday, dogecoin (DOGE) jumped up to 9% on a post by X regarding the death of the token’s mascot, which was later declined because the news turned out to be false.
Alex Krüger, co-founder of Asgard Markets, noted that today’s events suggest that bitcoin may not rally as much as bulls hope when the real approval news arrives.
“Fake ETF news has shown that BTC upside is clearly limited until we see actual ETF inflows,” Krüger said in a post on X. “It’s time for ETH to take over.”