[U; Tangent] So -- This Whole Vertical... Is Thick, With Thieves, Jokers and... Crooks. They Just Hacked SEC's Social Media And "Front-Traded" A Non-Existent Spot BTC-ETF Pop. Damn

Updated @ 11 pm EST: As additional proof of the pro-crime stance of this industry — and its GOP allies in Congress, consider that Sen. Lummis tonight conflated the EDGAR website with… Musk’s X-itter site (and thus impliedly blamed the SEC — the victim of the crime). . . for the criminals who hacked… M U S K.

This is. . . lunacy. A US Senator should be helping find and prosecute crooks — not cheering them on. Damnation. End, updated portion.

Based on deep experience in these matters, I can confidently predict that the jokers who broke into the SEC X-itter feed, and claimed an approval of a series of SEC Form S-1s, for ETFs to trade spot market Bitcoin. . . will be identified and charged with felonies.

"Front running" has been a felony since the 1960s, as has wire fraud -- and more recently, gaining unauthorized access to a protected computer or network became a felony around 2009. The scam is an old one: put out a fake presser (but immediately before that, buy -- in this case BTC, and then release the presser on the SEC's own Twitter feed, by hacking it). . . let a momentary spike occur (perhaps even stoking it, by hyping and amplifying the false Tweet). . . and then sell all the BTC just purchased. There will be footprints in the snow here, clear as Xmas morning at 10,000 feet.

The real, Gensler led SEC could now impose a cooling off period of several weeks, before ETF approval, as this was almost certainly an inside job -- somewhere (while the fraudsters are run to ground by DoJ, FBI and maybe. . . Interpol).

In any event, here's the latest:

. . .“The SEC’s @SECGov X/Twitter account has been compromised. The unauthorized tweet regarding bitcoin ETFs was not made by the SEC or its staff,” an SEC spokesperson told CNBC.

The false social media post said that the SEC had approved bitcoin ETFs for trading.

The price of bitcoin briefly spiked after the initial post, but then quickly slid below $46,000. . . .

The post, which included a fake comment purporting to be from SEC Chair Gary Gensler, briefly fueled a jump in the price of Bitcoin. Traders have been speculating for weeks that the agency could approve several of the products as soon as Wednesday.

Gensler said from his own X account that the regulator’s account had been “compromised,” an unauthorized statement was posted and that the agency hadn’t taken action. . . .

Spot BTC has continued to fall, here in the evening. What a pile-up, of clown cars.

Think SBF, Do Kwon, CZ and yes, Musk and all the rest. This is. . . a cesspool of frauds. Damnation -- I think this makes it unlikely that the ETFs are cleared this week -- until harmed traders (defrauded in the scam) are made whole voluntarily at the various crypto-exchanges under US SEC jurisdiction (cough! Coinbase!). The exchanges should have to help recover from their clients who engaged in the front running trades. That's the way a well-policed, mature market would be run. Onward.

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