Wake up Wake up Wake up Wake up. We got some big big big big big big big big Big Crypto. News folks, you better be alive. You better be paying attention because it was just announced today.

Tuesday January 9th Right after the market close, that All Spot Bitcoin ETFs have been approved. Yes, you're are hearing me right. An official statement from the SEC just came out. All Spot Bitcoin ETFs have been approved.

We have some major major, major, major, major, major major major major breaking news folks. You got to check this out like this is just this. This is history. You are literally witnessing history right now.

Look at this. Look at this. Look at this. Look at this.

Bitcoin It was just announced at 411 Bitcoin went from 46.7k all the way up to 47.9k quickly dropped all the way down to 4 45.6k and now we're sending just above 46 Folks, You are seeing history in real time. SEC approves Bitcoin ETFs for trading. The SEC has approved rule change application to allow the first Bitcoin ETFs in the US Paving the way for the long awaited funds to begin trading as soon as this week. The decision will likely lead to the conversion of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which holds about 29 billion of the cryptocurrency into an ETF as well as the launch of competing funds from mainstream issues like Black Rocks Ey Shares.

The approval could prove to be a landmark event in the adoption of cryptocurrency by mainstream. Finance as the ETF structure gives institutions and financial advisers a familiar and regulated excuse me, a regulated way to buy exposure to Bitcoin. So let me show you. I have this right here.

I have this kind of saved up? Uh, actually did I I have it on my Twitter a bit ago? Is it on my likes or did I end up? Where was it? Where was it of what happened with the Bitcoin adoption I think I just did it recently. right here. So 1980 and then in the early 2000 a gold ETF was introduced right here. This is the early 2000s, so obviously if you time adjust it Bitcoin went up, came down.

We're looking for the approval of the Spot ETF and this is no guarant. There's no guarantee of where things are going, but look at what happened to Gold, looks like a very similar potential path for Bitcoin itself. All right, we think that the SEC approval should we and others get it, is a green light for institutions. We've been talking to quite a few of them and they're much more interested now that the SEC effectively is Paving the way according to CEO Kathy Wood of Arc invest Uh, she was on Cnbc's halftime report just yesterday.

Actually, what did she have to say about this? Is it a Quick Clip or is it going to be a long thing? Yep, way too long. The SEC has four years. Uh, opposed A SoCal. Four years has opposed a so-called Bitcoin fund with several firms filing and then withdrawing applications for ETFs In the past, SEC Chair Gendler has been an outspoken critic of Crypto during the tenure.

However, the regulator appeared to change course on the ETF question in 2023, possibly due to part Uh an August loss to Grayscale in court which criticized the SEC for blocking Bitcoin ETFs while allowing funds to track Bitcoin Futures that was I'm no lawyer I don't speak any legal e But to my understanding, that basically ensured that the SEC couldn't block this. it was just more of a question of when. And the answer is today, the 9th Today, the SEC grants approval for Bitcoin ETFs for listing on all registered National Security exchanges. The approved Bitcoin ETFs will be subject to ongoing surveillance and compliance measures to ensure continued investor protection.

That's what happens with literally all of this optimism around approval first reemerge this year. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. If you want the list, if you want the skinny, it is right here. I Tweeted it out: feel free to check it out SEC has approved all Bitcoin ETFs Vanac bitwise.

Fidelity Franklin Valkyrie Hash Deex Arest, Grayscale Black Rock Wisdom Tree and Invesco Galaxy all of them and this is what is going on with Guzzler. Today's approval enhances Market transparency and provides investors with efficient access to digital asset. Investments within a regulated framework. Just came out breaking news just past the market close 4 p.m.

and obviously Crypto popped up, came down. I Guess buy the rumor, sell the news. It's going to be a lot of volatility. I'm not the person who's actively trading it right now I'm just here for the fun to see how crazy stuff gets.

Almost got up to 48k just dipped to 45k. Hello volatility! Let's see what the news people are saying about this: I Mean it has to be all over right now, but that's the skinny on the situation. It just got approved, they all got approved, and now it's going to be a mad rush to see who can get the most money. Let's see, let's see, are they talking about it here on Bloomberg Maybe has not approved the listing and trading of exchange praded products which matches what we heard from a spokes person.

but the fact that a Twitter account could be compromised perhaps raises more questions about that platform. How this happen means potential is definitely a question. But again, you're seeing prices manipulated by headlines like this and this has always been one of his his primary concerns. Yeah, I'm just looking at the um, the Twitter account or the X account here that posted that.

um I Keep wanting to say the word tweet but it's not the twe a tweet anymore and the last time it actually posted was on June 5th 2023. There's a um a post here that is uh, pinned at the very top from 2022, so it's It's really interesting here that Gov handle. they haven't posted this or anything recently. Um, so this is something to keep an eye on here as we try to sift through all the data.

Um, we go back to bitcoin prices and how they've been all over the place. they spiked and then they've lost ground. They're now down about 3% micro strategy Uh, Chenal which has become kind of a proxy for Bitcoin In many ways it's a company, but they basically just buy Bitcoin has moved into a similar Direction yeah, Bitcoin now barreling down below 46,000 Remember, we have been sustained above that market the last couple of days here. We even breached 47,000 These are the highest levels that we've seen since 2022.

so very sensitive moments for Bitcoin itself. Um, a potential ho here hoax here. Um, really impacting a market in real time Again, we've been waiting for this SEC approval. There's no assurance that it will necessarily come.

The Twitter account of the SEC seems to have been compromised and now we're looking at. you know, a question of what happens from here in terms of how the SEC approaches this product. All right. Well, we're marshalling the full resources uh that we have here at Bloomberg Main Btic alongside Scarlett Fali Bass along for the ride as is key lines down in Washington we do want to go out.

Now to our ETF IQ extraordinaire Eric Balunis talk a little bit about what we know. important Eric about we can expect. there was a deadline where they were supposed to make a decision. That deadline is still out there right? Eric Yeah, tomorrow is the deadline by the way.

I have a theory on this whole thing. you're reading the tweet. My guess is they they prepared a tweet and they put the wrong day because if this tweet were to go out tomorrow at the exact time, it would have made perfect sense with all all of our Intel We heard by many good sources that they SEC had requested issuers to request acceleration tomorrow at 400 p.m. and then then what that means is acceleration means you're then, uh, going to be be made effective so effectively we were expecting the 19 B4s approved, the acceleration and everything to happen in a whirlwind between 4 and 5:00 P p.m.

tomorrow. Um, this tweet would have made perfect sense at that time. So my theory we'll see what plays out is it wasn't compromised but that they just plann the tweet and they put the wrong day in. but I could be wrong I will say that I still expect we all expect High odds almost like 99% at this point that tomorrow they'll get approved and Thursday they'll trade.

So uh, this is just one of those never ending roller coaster days covering this. So I mean the whoever was handling the social media responsibilities over the SEC made a mistake If that's the case, why would Gensor say the SEC Twitter account was compromised If the plan was all along to approve them they could say you know what this early but yes this is the the action we were going to take anyway. That's what happens often s when companies are due to report earnings and it comes out a little bit earlier than expected. like I said.

that's my theory I Guess this is not accurate. Maybe all it somebody was compromised it. but I read the Tweet if you think about the the crypto world I don't know if they're writing that kind of language. it really does sound SEC is appar it was.

You can almost tell sometimes that it's some knucklehead. Yeah, this very much like a real SEC uh tweet yeah in conversation with Eric Balunis over at Bloomberg Intelligence I Want to go back down to Washington uh where Kayy lines Co of Balance of Power still standing by and Kayy we should point out here if this was a compromise situation. If this was as Eric is speculating maybe a potentially they were setting something up on embargo and somebody just uh, you hit the wrong button or did put the wrong date in. We should point out it's been 20 minutes since that tweet went out.

It's still up, it's still up Yeah I keep refreshing the page rain to see twet go it uh on the SEC official page I don't know if that raises questions as to whether or not they able to get into the account to delete it or if Gary Gensler's clarification on his own uh, personal account as the SEC Chairman is supposed to provide Clarity enough, but one would think that this would have been removed if indeed, this this was a hoax if it was a hacking situation. I Would just keep in mind that Gary Gensler's relationship with this platform and and these things in particular has often been a problem. If you remember, there was rumors circulating on this platform over the summer that he was actually resigning as chair of the SEC that proved to be, um, untrue. so obviously a lot of headaches.

this with the yeah just looking at his personal uh page. uh, the last time he posted was uh on January 1st to which everyone happy New Year And there's nothing. There's been nothing there since Once we do expect to hear from the SEC formally in in a way where they say this is what we actually posted. this is what we announced.

What other information do we expect to go along with the announce ment that uh, the Bitcoin ETFs have been approved? Well, theoretically Scarlet you would get the information on which ETFs We're talking about knowing that there's about 11 in play of either new filings or a conversion in the case of Grayscale, a switch and strategy in the case of hash deex. usually there would be more specific information and as always with any government agency, typically this information is available or would be put out in a press release on something like Sec.gov and I was not able to find that when I came on to address these breaking news in the first place which may be uh is a tell. Theoretically though, especially with all of the buildup to this decision. knowing that they were facing down this deadline and everyone is awaiting news on this, it would be a little bit more organized and detailed than just a a post on X Like this, All right and we should point out again.

Uh, just to kind of reiterate here, a Gary Gensler also posting on X and this is on his personal account or an account that's under his name at Gary Gensler Uh. Saying that the SEC Gov Twitter account was compromised and an unauthorized tweet was posted, it says that SC has not approved the listing and trading of Spot Bitcoin exchange traded products Here in our New York Studios Uh, we're also in conversation with Kayy Lin and Eric Balunis Shanali. I Mean, there's going to be a lot of speculation as to what happened. Uh, what didn't happen at the end of the day? They still have to make a decision.

or at least the anticipation is they have to make that decision. Do you think we're going to see anything materially different? Maybe in 24 hours time we saw just over the last 20 minutes I have the same thought? The fact that there was this kind of a mistake until we know where the mistake came from. Can the SEC then move forward and say okay, we can rightfully still approve this in that deadline they could always punt, right? They could always push it as they have before. They could also deny application.

They could ask for more information as we've seen uh, last minute amendments to the filings just this morning. Now the idea of the market here and you saw the reaction in pricing of Bitcoin was that those amendments, those quick movements were the SEC trying to move forward and get this page cleared and and get past this moment so that you know we can get these things approved with certainty now that there are so many issuers. But does this change equation? We don't even really know how this compromise as Gary Gensler called it. Remember, Think about just the influence that X or previously Twitter has had on financial markets alone in the last several years has had over this type of these type of Issu disclosures.

Was it a breach? Was it not a breach, right? I Mean they need to compromise like someone just early. Can't I Mean if you believe the idea that approving these things somehow provides greater oversight, greater transparency. and this is the roll out. Whether it was intentional, whether it was some fat finger thing or whatever, uh, it's not a good look one way or the other.

someone's trolling. Not a good look for SEC it's certainly not a good look for. X I Don't know why anybody's there. Is it a good look for the crypto industry? I'm not sure either.

Um Eric Funis as you move forward with planning ahead for your coverage tomorrow on. Uh, the Bitcoin ETFs What would issuers have to say about this? How would they respond to this messy roll out that we're seeing this afternoon? My: God What is going on right now I Don't think they like it? Are you not entertain? Everybody's ready to pop champagne quirks. Remember this has been 10 years in making so I Quote tweeted it and said boom I mean I thought so did I I deleted my tweets think the announcing again I was expecting all of this to happen. 4: to 5: P.m.

tomorrow So my guess is the industry. uh if you've been in this for the last six months, this has happened. coin Telegraph did something recently. uh, like a month ago saying I sh was approved.

that caused the problem and then some guy recently who a researcher said it wasn't getting approved that caused the price to go down. We're kind of like, you know Road tough at this point I don't you know I'm used to it I guess and I think the issuers are but I think more. They just want to get these things on the market. get them trading.

They spend a lot of money on lawyers. They're ready to go. Let's do this. The SEC also put in thousands of man hours helping these issuers get 200 Page documents into playing shape over the last month.

so, um, unfortunate whatever the reason. but I still see this happening? Uh, over the next, uh, 48 hours? I I Do want to get your thoughts Eric On a conversation that we had just prior to this, we were speaking with Dennis Kellerer the co- would stop manipulating the Bitcoin Market case here. that uh, at least for the retail investors, there's still an element of risk and fraud that, at least in his mind, is just way too outsized for this thing to really be out there here. And I am curious as to not only your own personal thoughts, but of the folks that you talk to in the industry how they plan to address.

uh, that r that risk and that fear? Yeah. I Think the idea that it's new and it's exciting and a little risky is sort of part of what makes it so interesting as an investment. These most people, like normal people, are not buying this as 100% of the portfolio. They're going to put a little little this on their portfolio like like hot sauce or a speculation.

They don't want to miss out in case this does become like a legit currency or goes up three or four fold from here. So my take on to Dennis Kellerer and that Better Markets is what they don't address is that you can already get exposure in a multitude of ways that are way more flawed than an ETF or expensive whether it's a crypto exchange right which is unregulated, or whether it's micro strategy stock or Gbtc which is an ETF ETF Famous for giving investors the fairest shake at a good deal and so that's really something they don't address. He just thinks it should be Outlaw Totally. does he mean we Micro You could add to your portfolio that have just as much Sizzle or risk as as a a crypto investment in my opinion.

and I Just think you know there. It's okay to speculate like not everything needs to be banned. Investors should have a little freedom to choose what they want. This is what Hester Pur and some of the other Commissioners Uh, believe you just have to disclose all the risks and these documents that are part of these: Bitcoin ETFs The disclosure pages.

There's like dozens of pages of risk disclosure. so I I Think they've done a good job of letting people know All right. I Appreciate all you guys jumping in on Eric B Bloomberg Intelligence co-host of ETF IQ our thanks to key lines down in Washington We also host uh Balance of Power, which comes on immediately after this program in our very own Chali Bassic here in New York covers everything Wall Street Uh for us and we should know and thank you to Kayy for pointing this out. The tweet that the SEC uh handle had tweeted out has finally been taken down.

that post no longer exists on X. So uh, what the SEC was saying was that it was sent out by accident or it was compromised that that post no longer exists I Guess the moral of the story here is I Guess wait for the official filing coming out of the SEC and not necessarily the posts on social media. A lot that has to be sorted out by the folks over at X by the folks at the SEC can stick with us. We'll have full coverage of all that as soon as it happens.

Come back. We want to go back out to Las Vegas where that CES conference is taking place a big Focus this year on AI A big focus on chips. What's CNBC saying dude I Love this. Um to make sure that we can you know expected to potentially get some news around through the same Bitcoin ETF So wild, so wild ETF it has a Ed the unauthorized tweet regard.

Welcome back to overtime. We have more breaking news on the Bitcoin ETF stop Kate Rooney has those details Kate Morgan A bit of a Twist Here, the ETF decision, the Twitter and X account has been compromised. It has not made a decision yet on that. Bitcoin ETF We have a statement here from an SEC spokesperson saying that the SEC Gov Twitter SLX account has been compromised.

The UN authorized tweet regarding Bitcoin ETFs was not made by the SEC or its staff Gary Gensler putting out a similar statement the chair of the SEC there. But again, it does appear the Sec's account has been compromised and has not yet made a decision on a Bitcoin ETF It has affected prices here. Morgan as you guys were talking about Um and Bitcoin at least for now pay so much money if I could listen to what was going on in the now compromised there and it appears the Sec's Twitter account has been hacked. That news again moving prices here.

but back over to you guys. But Gary Gensler's Twitter account uh I suppose has not been hacked so far as we know the part. To me, that's weirdest about this: A We're in a time when we expected the news to come through this account, but then, uh, we're hearing about the hack through the same platform where they apparently were hacked. Is there any kind of a press conference or or statement outside of X that we can expect to hear on this? Yes.

So I should clarify. John The statement that we got from the SEC was from an emailed SEC spokesperson here. So we have an emailed statement from the SEC clarifying what's going on on Twitter and X although again Gary Gensler's account retweeting that and saying putting out a similar statement that yes, that account has been hacked, but taking things away from X and Twitter for a second, we do have an official statement from an verified SEC spokesperson here over email that says we have not made a decision yet. Okay, and so I'm just going to reiterate it one more time.

it would appear that X has been hacked, that the US government the SEC has not been hacked. uh, which in of itself would have been quite interesting since the is also reg cyber security issues and hacks someone sent off a tweet early private sector no broke into Twitter We don't have this focus on the SEC website perhaps rather than some the social media platforms exactly. No word yet and um, right that it has been compromised. But again, as John mentioned, this was an afternoon in which we expected to potentially get some news around this if not tomorrow.

So it does come on a day when markets were very much pricing this in and expecting this news. So yeah, absolutely the timing here is suspicious. So funny. We'll wait for the official email at least.

and uh, we're making some calls on this, but we'll keep you posted. All right. Kate Rooney Thank you Thanks! We're going to shift gears here. Jack in the Box shares down 5% today.

No one cares about Jack in the Box I'm telling you, luxury consumer spending fell 15% this holiday SE No one cares about that either. SEC says it did not yet approve Bitcoin ETF X Account was compromise compromise as in someone hit the send button or maybe they didn't know how to schedule the Tweet properly. This legitimately means that in the year 2024, the biggest crypto Market manipulator is the the US Securities and Exchange Commission You cannot disagree with that statement. In the year 2024, the US SEC is the biggest crypto Market manipulator.

How insane is that? That is ridiculous and we just I guess live in a clown show right now. We absolutely live in a clown show. Can it officially approve tomorrow? It could. But I want to get your thoughts on that if you guys are watching right now.

I Appreciate you here. If you're in real time, do you think that this is going to like kind of embarrass the SEC to the point that they just come up with a reason to not approve it because all of a sudden like is it a bad look on crypto? dude, no one got hacked I would bet so so so much money that this was like an honest error by some employee at the SEC Like it was compromised. No, no one hacked in to send off a professional sounding tweet a day early. I am I'm not guaranteed I'm not guaranteeing anything I Feel very confident.

This was just like an honest mistake at someone at the SEC that doesn't know how to use Twitter Like this is, it was a scheduling error. It was obviously a scheduling error. It a hacker wouldn't hack in and be professional. They'd be like f you we're never approving crypto or we're deleting all stocks only crypto.

They would make it more comedic. It would be more ridiculous. They wouldn't tweet out a very SEC sounding thing a day early before we're expecting that exact announcement like come on, come on, come on, come on come on. CNBC Breaking says now it is Not approved Yeah, dude, you're a little late on that one.

We've been talking about that for a hot minute now. Um, if you're watching this in real time, it it's not. It's not real. It was compromised.

compr the old compromise. Let's see if anyone's talking about it right now. how it buas I think it's still early days he's not talking about okay I Guess everyone's like kind of dropped it at this point on the erroneous news Bitcoin went from 6 46.7k up to 47.9k all the way down to 44.7k Dude, people are getting liquidated left, right and Center on this news, that's crazy if you're joining right now it was reported that the all Bitcoin ETFs are approved. Then a couple minutes later they said SEC Twitter account uh, compromised not and Gary Gensler put that out and I guess then uh, the SEC Followed up by emailing news stations mainstream media that no, we did not approve it yet so we're still expecting that by tomorrow.

I Even thought it was odd that it was approved a day early knowing the SEC they always push things as far as they possibly can. Uh, but here we are right now in real time. They said they announced it and then they said they were compromised and it's not real and now we're are Now tomorrow we're all just like awkwardly waiting for tomorrow. This is a very, very awkward thing for tomorrow.

Um, it. It felt like the odds were pretty high going into it. But now seeing this craziness, no one saw this coming. This was a curves ball curveball curveball.

A double. the old double double. Uh, because no one expected this craziness. This just is continuing to add to the circus that is the clown show that is the SEC This is so this is wild.

This is absolutely wild. Well folks, that's what I have for you right now. I have the breaking news. That's not really the news that we expected it to be, but it's a lot more hilarious.

Not the positive news that we want, but much more comedic news. So I appreciate you stopping by. This is truly nuts. Um, we're going to be streaming once again tomorrow morning.

9:00 a.m. bright and early I Hope to see you there and hopefully tomorrow We actually have some legitimately good crypto news! So I appreciate you guys stopping by I'll catch you in the morning. Don't forget to like, Don't forget to subscribe. Have a good one.

Peace Out 1 Two.