Eric Council Jr. was sentenced to 14 months’ imprisonment for his position within the Jan. 9, 2024, hack of the U.S. Securities and Change Fee’s (SEC’s) X account. The convicted, together with co-conspirators, posted false information of the SEC approving the primary Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund within the U.S.
In a press launch on Might 16, 2025, the U.S. Division of Justice (DOJ) said that Council Jr. may also be subjected to a few years of supervised launch, a type of parole.
The 26-year-old from Huntsville, Alabama, had pleaded responsible to conspiracy to commit aggravated identification theft and entry gadget fraud in February. He was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) brokers in October final yr.
What Council Jr. did
On Aug. 29, 2023, the District of Columbia Court docket of Appeals in Washington dominated that the SEC was flawed to reject Grayscale’s spot BTC ETF software with out correct trigger. The court docket’s resolution meant that the SEC would overview Grayscale’s software, which it had rejected a number of instances.
The court docket win raised optimism, and the crypto business was extremely anticipating the SEC to approve the primary spot Bitcoin ETF any day. Council Jr. and his accomplices took benefit of the market sentiment and introduced a faux approval from the SEC’s real X account.
Court docket paperwork point out that Council Jr. conspired to hack the SEC’s X official account and put up faux information of spot BTC ETF approval to control the value of BTC. His position was to hold out a Subscriber Id Module (SIM) swap, the place a nasty actor convinces the cell provider to port a sufferer’s cellphone quantity to a SIM card managed by them.
In accordance with the DOJ, Council Jr. used an ID card printer to provide faux IDs of victims, whose private knowledge was provided to him by co-conspirators. He then used the faux IDs to realize entry to the sufferer’s quantity to entry the SEC’s X account and put up the faux information. Council Jr. acquired fee in BTC for his position within the SEC’s X account hack.
The harm Council Jr. contributed to
Instantly after the posting of the faux information, the value of every BTC elevated by greater than $1,000. However after the SEC chair, Gary Gensler, acknowledged the hack and dismissed the message of hackers as faux, the BTC value crashed by over $2,000 per BTC, CryptoSlate knowledge exhibits.
BTC value rose to $48,000 after the faux information was posted, however crashed to $45,000 after Gensler’s refutation. Round $50 billion was wiped off Bitcoin’s market capitalization within the 24 hours following the posting of the faux information. The value fluctuation additionally induced a complete of $220 million in liquidations.
FBI Felony Investigative Division Appearing Assistant Director Darren Cox referred to as hack “a calculated felony act meant to deceive the general public and manipulate monetary markets.” He added:
“By spreading false data to affect the markets, Council [Jr.] tried to erode public belief and exploit the monetary system.”