United States lawyers and senators have called on Congress to demand an investigation into the Securities and Exchange Commission after its X account was reportedly compromised and falsely reported news that the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds were approved.

“Just like the SEC would demand accountability from a public company if they made such a colossal market-moving mistake, Congress needs answers on what just happened. This is unacceptable,” said U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty in a Jan. 9 X post.

Charles Gasparino of Fox Business said he’s been told by securities lawyers that the SEC “will have to investigate itself” for market manipulation.

BREAKING: Securities lawyers tell @FoxBusiness the @SECGov will have to investigate itself for market manipulation after moving the price of $BTC up and down following the hacked tweet that it had approved the first spot BTC ETF and then saying it was fake. That said, for the SEC…

— Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) January 9, 2024

Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart suggested SEC’s Chair Gary Gensler will be furious with the staff member responsible behind the security breach — if indeed that's what happened.

“Gary is gonna want someone's head to roll for this. (Honestly i would too if i were him).”

Others, such as investment manager Timothy Peterson of Cane Island Alternative Advisors, claimed that the SEC’s security breach was a potential market manipulation event, which is exactly what the commission is supposed to protect investors against.

“How can @SECGov protect hundreds of millions of investors when it can't even protect its own social media account,” said Peterson.

Today, the @SECGov showed what it does best: Manipulating markets and hurting US investors.

— Cameron Winklevoss (@cameron) January 9, 2024

Bitcoin advocate Leyah Heilpurn noted the SEC’s false post stayed up for 20 minutes before it was taken down and amassed at least 4.4 million views in that timeframe.

“This is absolute market manipulation,” Heilpurn claimed.

Related: Spot Bitcoin ETF incoming? Outcomes investors may see from the SEC this week

Lawyers, politicians call for investigation of SEC over Bitcoin ETF post image 0 The false approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs on the SEC’s X account. Source: X

The SEC hasn’t provided additional detail about how its X account was compromised.

Despite the news, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said he’s still looking for official approval of the spot Bitcoin ETFs sometime between 4-5pm Eastern Standard Time on Jan. 10.

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