{"id":849216,"date":"2025-05-18T09:11:37","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T14:11:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/18\/alabama-man-sentenced-for-hacking-secs-social-media-to-post-fake-bitcoin-etf-news\/"},"modified":"2025-05-18T09:11:37","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T14:11:37","slug":"alabama-man-sentenced-for-hacking-secs-social-media-to-post-fake-bitcoin-etf-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/18\/alabama-man-sentenced-for-hacking-secs-social-media-to-post-fake-bitcoin-etf-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Alabama Man Sentenced for Hacking SEC\u2019s Social Media to Post Fake Bitcoin ETF News"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The hack in January 2024 briefly sent bitcoin\u2019s price surging $1,000 before crashing back down minutes later.<\/h2>\n

May 17, 2025, 1:46\u202fp.m. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

A 26-year-old man from Alabama has been sentenced to more than a year in prison for his role in a social media hack that briefly sent the price of bitcoin <\/p>\n

soaring.<\/p>\n

Eric Council Jr. of Huntsville pleaded guilty to charges tied to the January 2024 hack of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission\u2019s X account, according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Posing as a telecom customer using a fraudulent ID, Council used a SIM-swap <\/a>technique to hijack a phone number tied to the SEC\u2019s account. His co-conspirators then used it to falsely post that the agency had approved spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), a long-awaited regulatory milestone.<\/p>\n

Within minutes, the price of bitcoin surged by more than $1,000. It crashed soon after, losing more than $2,000 in value once the post was revealed as fake. The SEC did later that month approve the launch of spot bitcoin ETFs.<\/a><\/p>\n

Authorities say Council was paid in bitcoin for his role. He will serve 14 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.<\/p>\n

Federal prosecutors called the attack a calculated attempt to manipulate financial markets. \u201cThe deliberate takeover of a federal agency\u2019s official communications platform was a calculated criminal act meant to deceive the public and manipulate financial markets,\u201d said Acting FBI Assistant Director Darren Cox. \u201cBy spreading false information to influence the markets, Council attempted to erode public trust and exploit the financial system\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
Francisco Rodrigues<\/a><\/h5>\n
\n

Francisco is a reporter for CoinDesk with a passion for cryptocurrencies and personal finance. Before joining CoinDesk he worked at major financial and crypto publications. He owns bitcoin, ether, solana, and PAXG above CoinDesk’s $1,000 disclosure threshold.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\"Francisco<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Francisco Rodrigues<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The hack in January 2024 briefly sent bitcoin\u2019s price surging $1,000 before crashing back down minutes later. May 17, 2025, 1:46\u202fp.m. A 26-year-old man from Alabama has been sentenced to more than a year in prison for his role in a social media hack that briefly sent the price of bitcoin soaring. Eric Council Jr.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":849217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1619,3640],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-849216","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-alabama","8":"category-sentenced"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}