‘A real low point’: Congressman calls out SEC bitcoin ETF drama during House hearing

Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., became the latest member of Congress to criticize the SEC over Tuesday’s security failure

article-image

US Congressman French Hill | Congressman French Hill Facebook page modified by Blockworks

share

Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., kicked off the House Financial Services Committee’ digital assets subcommittee meeting Tuesday afternoon with a dig about the ongoing controversy surrounding the US Securities and Exchange Commission. 

“It’s clear some rogue regulators threaten consumer protections in the digital asset market as much as any bad actor,” Hill said during his prepared remarks at the start of the hearing. “I think we just witnessed the latest in Washington’s technological vulnerabilities yesterday, and a real low point for the SEC.” 

Hill’s comments refer to a market-moving fake post on the SEC’s official X account that claimed the agency had approved bitcoin ETFs

Read more: Gary Gensler says SEC’s X account was compromised, posted fake bitcoin ETF approval news

Fifteen minutes later — and after bitcoin had surged to just under $48,000 — SEC Chair Gary Gensler clarified publicly that the agency’s account was “compromised” and no bitcoin ETF applications were approved. 

“In this Congress, our committee has scrutinized the repeated and proactive efforts by certain Biden financial regulators to take aggressive agency actions against disfavored industries through guidance, rulemaking, supervision and enforcement,” Hill said, mentioning the Financial Stability Oversight Council’s inconsistent track record with crypto. 

Hill added that he and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., would issue a letter to Gensler “to start the process of getting to the bottom of how it happened.” 

Senators J.D. Vance, R-Ohio., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., announced late Wednesday they had also written to Gensler about the incident, calling it an “unacceptable” and “colossal error.” 

Other Republican US senators chimed in as well, including Bill Hagerty, R-TN, and Cynthia Lummis, R-WY. 

Read more: SEC will investigate, ‘determine appropriate’ steps following X account compromise

“Just like the SEC would demand accountability from a public company if they made such a colossal market-moving mistake, Congress needs answers on what just happened,” Hagerty wrote via his X account late Tuesday. “This is unacceptable.”

In a statement shared with Blockworks, the SEC said Wednesday that the compromise incident was referred to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the securities regulator’s inspector general.

Notably, the agency appears to seek to quash rumors that the tweet in question had been drafted by agency staff and erroneously posted.

“The unauthorized content on the @SECGov account was not drafted or created by the SEC,” the agency said. “We will provide updates on the incident as appropriate.”


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Unlocked by Template (7).png

Research

Union’s improvements upon Tendermint consensus through CometBLS, coupled with ZK proving through Galois, allow for a broadly scalable, cost efficient, and low latency IBC implementation that is feasibly scalable across every existing blockchain, virtual machine and runtime. The implementation offers modular crosschain interoperability without the need for trusted intermediaries.  

article-image

35% of admitted teams are building AI apps, while 30% are using stablecoins

article-image

Those in the US who preregistered for the app got $150 worth of WLD

article-image

The L2 chain with opt-in privacy features was eight years in the making

article-image

Bitcoin stands on the shoulders of these Cypherpunk giants

article-image

Unto’s Will Yoo and Liam Heeger spoke to the Empire newsletter about their raise and how they plan to build Thru

article-image

Greater efficiency, William Jevons predicted, would lead to even greater consumption