Cointelegraph Reports False News - BlackRock Approves BTC Spot ETF

On October 16, 2023, the blockchain news platform Cointelegraph, in its message published on the X platform, reported that the SEC had approved the iShares Bitcoin Spot ETF, which is under the management of BlackRock.

The information provided by Cointelegraph was subsequently used as a source by multiple other media outlets. As this news spread across various media channels, the price of BTC experienced a significant increase, surging by over 10%.

Subsequently, ETF analyst James Seyffart from Bloomberg posted on the X platform, expressing doubts about the accuracy of Cointelegraph's exclusive report on the “SEC approving BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Spot ETF.” As of now, there is no evidence or confirmation to support this claim.

As the news spread, BlackRock confirmed to FoxBusiness and Bloomberg that its Bitcoin spot ETF application is still under review by the SEC. The previous report by Cointelegraph was not accurate.

The news of the SEC approving BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Spot ETF caused significant short-term price fluctuations in BTC and other major tokens. According to Coinglass data, this led to a surge in prices, resulting in more than $100 million worth of short contracts getting liquidated, and over $30 million long contracts getting liquidated.

Cointelegraph issued a subsequent apology to its readers and discussed its investigation into the unverified news it had published on X regarding the Bitcoin Spot ETF. An employee had posted the report on X without prior confirmation of the authenticity of the news source. This violated Cointelegraph's social media procedure, which requires source verification and editorial approval before publication.