Man charged in SEC bitcoin price spike hack

FBI agents on Thursday arrested an Alabama man for his alleged role in the Jan. 9 hack of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s X account, which sent the price of bitcoin spiking by more than $1,000, the Department of Justice announced.

The man, Eric Council Jr., 25, is expected to appear later Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, on charges of conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud.

Prosecutors allege that Council executed a so-called SIM swap attack to reassign the cellphone number of a person whose number was linked to the SEC’s X account to a subscriber identity module on a phone controlled by Council.

He then allegedly shared access codes to the X account with co-conspirators who used them to blast out a fake tweet in the name of the agency’s chairman, Gary Gensler.

The tweet said, “Today the SEC grants approval for #Bitcoin ETFs for listing on all registered national securities exchanges.”

Bitcoin’s price rose by more than $1,000 after the bogus tweet.

Shortly afterward, the SEC regained control of its social media account, and announced the tweet was false and the result of a hack.

“After that, the value of BTC decreased by more than $2,000 per bitcoin,” the DOJ noted.

The hack occurred when the SEC was considering approval of exchange-traded funds that held that cryptocurrency.

A day after the hack, the SEC approved rule changes that allowed the creation of bitcoin ETFs in the United States.

Council, who used the online handles “Ronin,” “Easymunny,” and “AGiantSchnauzer,” allegedly was paid in bitcoin by co-conspirators for his role in the hack.

He then allegedly conducted Internet searches for terms such as “SECGOV hack,” “telegram sim swap,” “how can I know for sure if I am being investigated by the FBI,” and, “What are the signs that you are under investigation by law enforcement or the FBI even if you have not been contacted by them,” the DOJ said.