US man who hacked SEC's X account to spike Bitcoin price sentenced to prison

Eric Council Jr., 26, was sentenced to 14 months in prison and three years of supervised release on Friday for participating in the hack of the official X account of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced the sentencing in a press release. Council and other hackers took over the SEC’s X account in 2024 to falsely announce that the agency had approved Bitcoin exchange traded funds, or ETFs, which shot up the price of the cryptocurrency before later dropping.

According to the DOJ, Council and his co-conspirators performed a SIM swap attack against the cellphone account of a person who had access to the SEC’s X account, which allowed the hackers to take control of their phone number. From there, the hackers reset the password of the SEC’s X account, granting them control of the account.