Man charged in $1,000 Bitcoin spike after fake SEC tweet

The FBI has arrested 25-year-old Eric Council for his involvement in a fake tweet about the SEC’s approval of spot Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) ETFs.

According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, Council has been charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud.

The incident occurred in January when the cryptocurrency community was eagerly awaiting the SEC’s decision on Bitcoin ETFs.

Council gained unauthorized access to the SEC’s X (formerly Twitter) account through a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) swap attack, using stolen personal information from an SEC employee.

Council posted a fraudulent tweet stating that the SEC had approved spot Bitcoin ETFs.

This fake news caused Bitcoin’s price to rally by $1,000, jumping to $47,800 within minutes.

However, after the SEC debunked the tweet, Bitcoin quickly dropped by $2,000, landing at $45,400.

Based on the FBI investigation, it was found that Council and his co-conspirators orchestrated the SIM swap to bypass security measures, allowing them access to the SEC’s X account.

According to authorities, Council used personal identifying information (PII) stolen from an SEC employee to execute the SIM swap at a store in Huntsville, Alabama.

He then purchased a new iPhone, which he used to access the SEC’s account and post the fake tweet.

Council was later paid in Bitcoin by his co-conspirators for his role in the attack.

Following the incident, Council became anxious about the possibility of an FBI investigation and conducted internet searches on how to check if he was being investigated.

He is expected to appear in court in Alabama later this week to face charges for his actions.

At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price was $68,921.76.