Bitcoin Cash Pops And Drops After Fake Kroger Press Release

Another fake press release sent the price of a cryptocurrency surging and plummeting in minutes.

What Happened: Earlier Friday, reports circulated that Kroger Co. KR, the largest U.S.-based grocery retailer, will begin accepting Bitcoin Cash BCH/USD this holiday season.

According to the fraudulent release from Kroger’s official website, the company said that beginning Dec. 1, the entire Kroger Family of Stores will accept Bitcoin Cash for all in-store and online purchases.

The release also claimed that Kroger “doesn’t rule out” the possibility of keeping a percentage of BCH on its balance sheet.

A Kroger spokesperson later confirmed to CNBC that the Bitcoin Cash-related release was fraudulent.

This isn’t the first time hackers have found a way to make a fake release look authentic by releasing it from the official company website.

In September, a fake press release from Walmart Inc WMT declaring it would accept Litecoin LTC/USD as payment sent the price of Litecoin soaring momentarily.

In a similar fashion, the price of Bitcoin Cash briefly surged 5% before erasing all gains minutes after the Kroger news was confirmed to be fake.

Bitcoin Cash is one of the cryptocurrencies available on PayPal Holdings Inc PYPL cryptocurrency trading platform in addition to Bitcoin BTC/USD, Ethereum ETH/USD, and Litecoin LTC/USD.

Price Action: At press time, Bitcoin Cash was trading at a price of $601.51, up 0.13% in the last 24 hours.

Photo: Maxim Hopman on Unsplash