Hoax: Bitcoin Cash tumbles after Kroger confirms press release is a fake
The price of Bitcoin Cash spiked today after a fake press release made it onto Kroger’s website confirming the US supermarket chain would accept BCH payments.
The release appeared on Kroger’s investor relations page, but was later deleted with the company explaining that the page gets automatically updated with announcements posted on PR Newswire where the fake story also appeared.
In response to the news, Bitcoin Cash saw its price jump from $600 to $619 in a matter of minutes before crashing back down.
“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,” the company wrote in a statement e-mailed to Reuters.
It comes after a fake press release circulated in September claiming that supermarket giant Walmart was partnering with Litecoin.
The news story was reported on in Reuters, Bloomberg News and CNBC before it was exposed as fake causing the price of Litecoin to spike.
Bitcoin Cash was created through a hardfork to the Bitcoin blockchain in 2017 and lets more transaction data be processed and stored in each new block.
Read more: Fake news: Walmart confirms it is not partnering with Litecoin