Cointelegraph says Bitcoin ETF approved despite no proof

Nearly $100 million worth of positions were liquidated in barely an hour today after erroneous reports of an approved spot Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) sent the currency’s price soaring before a hasty correction sent it crashing back to Earth.

In a now-deleted article, Cointelegraph reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had approved an iShares spot Bitcoin ETF managed by BlackRock.

Cointelegraph posted on X (formerly Twitter) “BREAKING: SEC APPROVES ISHARES BITCOIN SPOT ETF.” The post was then edited to include the word “REPORTEDLY,” before the outlet deleted it altogether.

Cointelegraph edits tweet, adding ‘reportedly’ 💀 pic.twitter.com/NWAPT9aLqp

— db (@tier10k) October 16, 2023

Read more: Grayscale SEC win brings spot GBTC ETF approval a step closer

Confirmation from Fox News Journalist Eleanor Terrett, Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart, and CoinDesk, all say the BlackRock spot Bitcoin ETF is not approved and is still under review.

Bitcoin surged from $27,900 to $30,000 after the initial report before falling back to around $27,900 following the correction. A Bitcoin ETF approval is considered a bullish sentiment within the community.

In response to the ordeal, Cointelegraph posted, “We apologize for a tweet that led to the dissemination of inaccurate information regarding the Blackrock Bitcoin ETF.”

It said, “An internal investigation is currently underway. We are committed to transparency and will share the findings of the investigation with the public once it is concluded within three hours.”

If that turns out to be fake, and Cointelegraph can’t prove they were misled into false reporting, then they are going to get a nasty lesson in anti-manipulation laws…

— Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) (@adamscochran) October 16, 2023

Crypto sleuth ZachXBT has pointed out that, at first glance at least, it looks as though Cointelegraph got its unvetted breaking news from an anonymous Telegram user who subsequently deleted their account.

Meanwhile, CEO Yana Prikhodchenko (she goes by just Yana on the Cointelegraph website) who took over from Wes Kaplan in April of 2023, has yet to make a public statement about the debacle.

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