Bitcoin Cash Spikes Amid Fake Press Release Claiming Kroger Will Accept It

Kroger, an American retail company and the largest US supermarket by revenue, has debunked a press release from PR Newswire (PRN) that claimed it will start accepting Bitcoin Cash (BCH) as payment this December. 

Shortly after the fraudulent press release was published, BCH saw a price boost of over 4.6 percent, taking the coin from US$602.63 at 11:30 UTC to US$630.70 in just 15 minutes. 

Kroger referred to the report as “fraudulent” and that it should be disregarded immediately. The release appeared on Kroger’s investor relations page, only later to be deleted, while simultaneously appearing on PRN – also deleted. PRN went on to say it was “urgently investigating the incident, including looking into any criminal activity associated with this matter”.

Unsurprisingly, BCH took a hit after Kroger debunked the report, even falling short of its previous price before the announcement to US$601.20. At the time of writing, BCH was trading at US$605.28.

Verify, Not Trust

This is analogous to a growing number of fake news reports in the crypto community. As Crypto News Australia reported in September, Litecoin surged amid a press release saying retail giant Walmart was partnering with the cryptocurrency to accept crypto payments.

Verifying the authenticity of news is important in order to make good decisions about your investments. If retail giants such as Walmart or Kroger started accepting crypto as payment, it’s highly unlikely they would begin with Bitcoin-forked currencies like BCH or BSV, or altcoins like Litecoin.

One recent example of practical cryptocurrency adoption is El Salvador, which recently used bitcoin profits to build 20 schools, besides funding numerous projects to help develop infrastructure in the country.