FILE PHOTO: The seal of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seen at their headquarters in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 12, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An Alabama man was arrested on Thursday over criminal charges that he hacked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's X account earlier this year, in an action that caused bitcoin's value to spike, federal prosecutors announced.
In January, a hacker posted false news about a widely anticipated announcement the SEC was expected to make about bitcoin, shocking the market and sending the cryptocurrency's price spiking. The post on @SECGov said the securities regulator had approved exchange-traded funds to hold bitcoin. The SEC deleted the post shortly after it appeared.
Eric Council Jr., 25, of Athens, Alabama, was arrested on Thursday morning in connection with the hack, the U.S. Attorney's office for the District of Columbia said in a statement on Thursday.
The SEC did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Thursday's arrest.
The agency previously said it was the victim of "SIM swapping," a technique used by fraudsters to seize control of telephone lines, when its account on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, was hacked earlier in January.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
