Considering last week’s development in the crypto world when the Securities Exchange Commission’s X account (formerly known as “Twitter”) had their account hacked, we’ll look at the 5 tweets that have rocked the crypto market and crypto betting sites over the years.
1. CZ Taking Down His Rival SBF
On November 6th of 2022, Changpeng Zhao, the Binance CEO, took to the social media platform to announce they were going to liquidate their holdings in FTT, insinuating things were wrong at FTX by adding, “due to recent revelations”.
As part of Binance’s exit from FTX equity last year, Binance received roughly $2.1 billion USD equivalent in cash (BUSD and FTT). Due to recent revelations that have came to light, we have decided to liquidate any remaining FTT on our books. 1/4
— CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) November 6, 2022
That was the pre-cursor to the liquidity crisis at Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, which has since led to criminal proceedings and a jail sentence for the lost funds of customers that totaled billions of dollars.
To be cynical, it is entirely possible that CZ’s tweet kickstarted much of the fraudulent behavior from the FTX boss, and the crypto market panicked, losing billions across the industry.
Inadvertently, it will be long remembered as a seminal point of change for the cryptocurrency industry, with the knock on, of improving future investments safeguarding with stronger ringfencing while tighter restrictions are now applied by regulators of the industry.
2. Elon Musk
It’s hard to narrow down Elon Musk’s participation on X to one tweet. His presence on the social media platform he owns is a mainstay, making him an influential figure.
The one tweet that does spring to mind happened on the 27th of May 2022 when he tweeted:
Tesla merch can be bought with Doge, soon SpaceX merch too
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 27, 2022
The polarising figure Musk —who had over 100 million followers at the time— moved the market and the price of Doge by over 10% in a day.
Doge has always been his crypto coin of preference on Musk’s X, with a constant tinkering of his profile posting the Shibu Inu or indeed just referencing the breed of dog on his tweets.
Musk’s presence on the platform continues to be hugely influential with his droves of followers hanging on his every word!
3. Gary Gensler – SEC Chairperson
Yes, before the SEC got hacked they liked to use the power of the tweet and in early 2023, their chairperson Gary Gensler took to the platform to announce and make #3 in our list when he said:
Today @SECGov charged Kraken for the unregistered offer & sale of securities thru its staking-as-a-service program.
Whether it’s through staking-as-a-service, lending, or other means, crypto intermediaries must provide the proper disclosures & safeguards required by our laws.
— Gary Gensler (@GaryGensler) February 9, 2023
This was a controversial move by the SEC splitting opinion within the industry. Indeed, Gensler has come under scrutiny for the tweet with many disgruntled Kraken users believing it to be needless and done with malice by the enforcement agency.
4. Celsius Tweets to Pause Withdrawals
The tweet every crypto user is dreading is the one that pauses withdrawals from their chosen platform. So, in June of 2022, Celsius tweeted to say exactly that.
.@CelsiusNetwork is pausing all withdrawals, Swap, and transfers between accounts. Acting in the interest of our community is our top priority. Our operations continue and we will continue to share information with the community. More here: https://t.co/CvjORUICs2
— Celsius (@CelsiusNetwork) June 13, 2022
This immediately sent the market into freefall and less than a month later Celsius was filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in New York.
Celsius was found not to have the required liquidity to fulfill withdrawal requests after choosing to place their clients’ monies into high-risk investments.
This occurrence rocked the industry with the findings that Celsius was a Ponzi scheme and law enforcement charged them in the middle of 2023.
5. SEC Hack
We believe it is only fair to bring in the recent SEC hacking that started our look for the five tweets that rocked the crypto market.
Once hacked, chaos ensued when they falsely tweeted that they had given their approval to the Bitcoin Exchange Traded Funds (EFT), which resulted in an immediate upswing in price to a 20-month peak of just under $48,000.
This was short-lived as once the truth emerged that the SEC had been hacked the price fell back straight away.
The @SECGov twitter account was compromised, and an unauthorized tweet was posted. The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products.
— Gary Gensler (@GaryGensler) January 9, 2024
‘
We believe this shows the power of misinformation behind the nefarious activity that followed the original tweet accounting for over $200 million in lost liquidations.
