A false story was published after the official X (formerly Twitter) account from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission posted a tweet claiming that the regulator had approved spot Bitcoin ( BTC ) exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

In a Jan. 9 X post, SEC Chair Gary Gensler confirmed  the commission had “not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products,” despite a tweet from the official SEC X account. Various news outlets — including Cointelegraph, Blockworks and Reuters — initially reported on the story from the SEC before Gensler’s statement.

The @SECGov twitter account was compromised, and an unauthorized tweet was posted. The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products.

— Gary Gensler (@GaryGensler) January 9, 2024

Gensler’s post came 15 minutes after the SEC’s false news of the spot Bitcoin ETF approval, which had already accumulated at least 4.4 million views.

The securities regulator hasn't provided additional details on how its X account was compromised.

However, the SEC managed to take down the false post shortly after it was published.

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.