A man has been sentenced to 14 months in prison for his role in hacking into the SEC's official X account last January to post false tweets approving a bitcoin ETF

According to CNBC, the Department of Justice said a judge sentenced an Alabama man to 14 months in prison for his role in the January 2024 hack of the Securities Exchange Commission X account, which was used to send a tweet that caused the price of bitcoin to briefly spike by more than $1,000.
The man pleaded guilty three months ago in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud and helping others take control of the Securities Exchange Commission account. The X account was used to falsely claim that the U.S. SEC had officially approved a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). BTC rose after the tweet, but its price fell by more than $2,000 after the U.S. SEC quickly regained control of the account and called the tweet false. Notably, the U.S. SEC said the next day that it had approved a rule change allowing the creation of a Bitcoin ETF.