A 26-year-old man from Alabama was sentenced to over a year in prison for his involvement in a social media hack that temporarily increased the price of bitcoin. Eric Council Jr., from Huntsville, pleaded guilty to charges related to the January 2024 hack of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s X account. Using a SIM-swap technique with a fraudulent ID, Council hijacked a phone number linked to the SEC’s account. His accomplices then posted false information claiming the agency had approved spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), a regulatory milestone eagerly awaited by the crypto community. This caused the price of bitcoin to rise by over $1,000 within minutes, but it quickly fell by more than $2,000 once the post was exposed as fake. Council was compensated in bitcoin for his role and will serve 14 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Federal prosecutors described the attack as a deliberate attempt to manipulate financial markets.
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