An Alabama hacker, Eric Council Jr., has pleaded guilty to hacking the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s X account and making a fake post about the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs on Jan. 9, 2024. The 25-year-old appeared in Washington federal court on Monday, admitting to identity theft and access device fraud.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson scheduled his sentencing for May 16. DOJ prosecutors though say that co-conspirators guided Council through the hack, setting off a digital bomb that briefly inflated Bitcoin’s price before it came down crashing as the SEC quickly denied the post, confirming that the announcement was unauthorized. They actually made the real announcement just a day later on January 10th.
“Council used an identification card printer to create a fraudulent identification card with a victim’s personally identifiable information obtained from his co-conspirators,” the DOJ said in its official press release.
Council admitted to conspiracy charges for aggravated identity theft and access device fraud. When sentencing rolls around on May 16, he could be looking at up to five years behind bars.
As part of the deal, he agreed to hand over the $50,000 he earned from the hacking operation. The government will be taking that off his hands. Council went by the online aliases “Ronin,” “Easymunny,” and “AGiantSchnauzer.”
“Council used the fraudulent identification card to impersonate the victim and gain access to the victim’s cellular phone number for the purpose of accessing the SEC’s account. Council’s co-conspirators then accessed the account and posted in the name of the SEC Chairman.”
DOJ
How Council pulled off the SEC hack
According to the court filing, Council used a fake ID to manipulate an employee at a local phone store into giving him access to the victim’s phone. With the help of the aforementioned co-conspirators who had already chosen the target, he bypassed security measures on X (formerly Twitter).
Prosecutors described the hack as calculated, with the team exploiting weaknesses in both physical and digital systems. The timing of the fake post couldn’t have been better—or worse, depending on how you look at it.
Markets were eagerly waiting for news from the SEC, as spot Bitcoin ETFs had been delayed for years due to legal battles. When Council’s fake post went live, it was like pouring gasoline on an already burning market.
The launch has been historic nevertheless, as BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) made history as the most successful ETF debut in history. January 2025 saw nearly $5 billion in inflows, with projections estimating that figure could hit $59 billion by year’s end. But thanks to the geopolitical and economic uncertainties around the US and China, the ETFs only attracted a combined $171 million in net inflows in last session’s trading on Friday, according to data from Farside.
Meanwhile just last week, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) filed trademarks for its Truth.Fi Bitcoin Plus ETF as the self-proclaimed ‘crypto president’ Donald Trump continues to expand his footprint in the crypto industry.
