Eric Council Jr., a 26-year-old from Alabama, has been sentenced to 14 months in jail for hacking the SEC’s Twitter account and posting a fraudulent Bitcoin ETF approval announcement, inflicting a short lived $1,000 Bitcoin value spike. This incident underscores ongoing vulnerabilities in cryptocurrency markets.
SIM Swapping Assault on SEC Twitter Account
On Could 17, 2025, Eric Council Jr., a 26-year-old resident of Athens, Alabama, was sentenced to 14 months in jail for his function in a January 2024 hack of the U.S. Securities and Change Fee’s (SEC) Twitter account.
The unauthorized takeover, executed by way of a complicated SIM swap assault, allowed Council and his co-conspirators to submit a pretend announcement claiming the SEC had authorized spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
The fraudulent submit, which appeared on January 9, 2024, acknowledged, “At this time the SEC grants approval for #Bitcoin ETFs for itemizing on all registered nationwide securities exchanges,” triggering a right away $1,000 surge in Bitcoin’s value.
Council, recognized on-line as “Ronin,” “Easymunny,” and “AGiantSchnauzer,” collaborated with others who supplied private details about an SEC worker with entry to the @SECGov account. Utilizing a conveyable ID printer, he created a pretend driver’s license and impersonated the worker at an AT&T retailer in Huntsville, Alabama, to acquire a SIM card linked to the sufferer’s telephone.
Council then bought an iPhone, intercepted password reset codes for the SEC’s Twitter account, and shared them together with his accomplices, who posted the misleading tweet. He was paid roughly $50,000 in Bitcoin BTC for his function, which he later returned for money.
This case follows one other high-profile crypto crime, the place 12 people had been charged in a $263 million racketeering scheme involving cyberattacks and bodily break-ins, highlighting the rising sophistication of crypto-related fraud.
Cybersecurity in Crypto Stays a Prime Concern
The SEC hack, occurring simply in the future earlier than the company’s official approval of 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs on January 10, 2024, uncovered vulnerabilities in each institutional safety and cryptocurrency markets.
U.S. Legal professional Jeanine Ferris Pirro emphasised that such schemes “threaten the well being and integrity of our market system,” whereas FBI Appearing Assistant Director Darren Cox known as the hack a “calculated legal act meant to deceive the general public.”
Proof recovered from Council’s laptop computer, together with searches like “SECGOV hack” and “how can I do know for positive if I’m being investigated by the FBI,” underscored his consciousness of the crime’s severity.
Different current crypto safety breaches, such because the Could 2025 Coinbase knowledge theft, the place hackers bribed help brokers to steal consumer info, and violent kidnappings focusing on crypto millionaires in Europe. These incidents spotlight the pressing want for enhanced cybersecurity measures, from two-factor authentication to insider menace detection.
Council’s 14-month sentence, adopted by three years of supervised launch, goals to discourage related crimes, however the speedy evolution of cyber ways poses ongoing challenges for regulators and exchanges alike.
