The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently announced it was extending its investigative efforts with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) following a dubious tweet about Bitcoin ETFs. The tweet, which was published from an unofficial SEC account on January 9th, claimed that spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds had been approved in the United States. The SEC promptly disavowed the tweet as unauthorized and not originating from their officials.

Chairman of the SEC, Gary Gensler, highlighted concerns about the official SEC account being compromised by degenerate parties in a subsequent post. The tweet was later deleted, and the SEC plans to investigate the incident along with the FBI and the Commission’s Office of the Inspector General. The SEC also provided a word of caution to the general public to consider any rule change approvals for trading of a Bitcoin ETF before the update is posted on its website.

The SEC approved the listing of spot Bitcoin ETF offerings from several firms including ARK 21Shares, Invesco Galaxy, VanEck, and others on U.S. exchanges on January 10th. Following the approval, Gensler stressed that the commission’s decision was not an endorsement of Bitcoin, but merely the exchange-traded products. This development comes amidst an era of growing interest in cryptocurrencies and related investment products, placing SEC’s role in regulatory oversight under increased scrutiny.