ASSAM (CoinChapter.com) — The price of Bitcoin Cash (BCH), a ‘spin-off’ or fork of Bitcoin, rose following rumors that Kroger, a major American retail company, would accept it as a medium of payment.
As a result of the press release, BCH’s market momentum skewed towards bulls as the cryptocurrency surged from $595 to $623 Friday. At the same time, its trading volume shot above $1.6 billion, underscoring adequate market support behind the price rally.
Fake Bitcoin Cash press release
However, this bullish outburst died down in the nick of time when Kroger revealed in a genuine press release that it wouldn’t accept payments in BCH and that the previous press release was fraudulent. Following this statement from Kroger, the BCH/USD prices dropped from $632 to around $600, sinking by more than 5%.
“This morning, a press release was fraudulently issued claiming to be The Kroger Co that falsely stated the organization will begin to accept Bitcoin Cash. This communication was fraudulent and is unfounded and should be disregarded,”
said an employee of Kroger.The incident was also reported by Matt Grossman, a reporter at Wall Street Journal who shared a picture from a post that he authored covering the scenario.
“A Kroger spokeswoman confirms the company’s apparent Bitcoin Cash announcement was fake. It was even on their website for a time,”
he saidThrowingStones, a crypto analyst on Twitter shared the press release on his account, asking Kroger actually to accept BCH.
“No idea what happened with the #Kroger press release, but it sure shows the market would welcome them,”
said the analyst.Rising scams in crypto space
The explosion of the crypto space this year has forced many firms into accepting cryptocurrencies.
Firms like AMC Theatres have announced their plans on accepting Dogecoin and other cryptocurrencies. However, it seems that many scammers are taking advantage of these releases. In a similar situation like Bitcoin Cash, a fake press release revealed that Walmart would accept Litecoin (LTC), leading to a price surge of 30%. This press release was distributed by another media firm, GlobeNewswire.
