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The bitcoin (BTC) spinoff that is bitcoin cash (BCH) got into a bit of a mix-up after word broke out that retail company Kroger (KR) will be accepting payments using the said cryptocurrency. This resulted in bitcoin cash’s market price making a five percent leap of about $600. Welp, the thing is that such an announcement was not true.
Kroger taking notice
The now false report was quickly noticed by Kroger’s investor relations page over on PR Newswire and such a press release was promptly taken down. After the announcement was proven fake, bitcoin cash returned to its previous price as it is currently sitting around $590.86.
Bitcoin cash fraud similar to Litecoin’s
This recent incident involving bitcoin cash and Kroger is very much similar to what happened with Walmart (WMT) and Litecoin (LTC) back in September of this year. For the uninitiated, the latter’s price surged by 20% in that month after a press release revealed that the former would begin accepting the said cryptocurrency in their chain of retail stores. However, just like BCH and Kroger, this too was erroneous intel.
As for cryptocurrency pundits, they’ve noticed a pattern that this has been happening quite too often on digital currencies.
What pundits think
In line with this, Cornell Law School Professor Robert C. Hockett said in an interview that they’ve already seen such M.O. throughout the entirety of the finance sector’s history. He then revealed that what these scammers do is that they’ll be out to purchase some of the cryptocurrency that they’ll be building hype on before spreading falsehoods.
After they’ve injected the rumors to the public, they’ll just sit back and watch the crypto’s price jack up as unknown individuals would naturally react to it without even doing their due diligence.
Hockett went on to say that as the market goes up a notch, this would be the time for these vultures to feast on and get a substantial payday from their devious plot.
That said, the professor pointed out that it is high time for a regulating body like the Securities and Exchange Commission to be given jurisdiction over both the cryptocurrency and fintech markets, “with a view to preventing these kinds of abuses.” due to it being too predictable.
‘Easily catalyst’ when it comes to cryptocurrencies
ProChain Capital President and Co-Founder David D. Tawil also commented on this situation stating that despite such modus being not that new, this is without a doubt what he describes as an easy catalyst when it is applied in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin cash and litecoin.
Steve Anderson is an Australian crypto enthusiast. He is a specialist in management and trading for over 5 years. Steve has worked as a crypto trader, he loves learning about decentralisation, understanding the true potential of the blockchain.
