News that the supermarket chain was supposedly embracing the world's No. 21 cryptocurrency quickly spread like wildfire.
The American grocery giant Kroger has launched an investigation after a fake press release was circulated that claimed it was going to start accepting Bitcoin Cash as a payment method.
News that the supermarket chain was supposedly embracing the world's No. 21 cryptocurrency quickly spread like wildfire — indicating lessons haven't been learned after a similar hoax targeting Walmart back in the middle of September.
In Kroger's case, the bogus announcement was made on PRNewswire. To compound the problem, it was then automatically picked up by the company's own investor relations page… prompting a number of media outlets to follow suit.
Bitcoin Cash saw a flash-in-the-pan spike of 3.35% after the news emerged, rallying from $602.99 to $623.22 in 20 minutes. But the altcoin crashed back down to Earth after Kroger said:
"This communication was fraudulent and is unfounded and should be disregarded."
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Not Again!
The incident is practically a carbon copy of the market chaos seen two months ago.
In that case, a press release was shared on a rival service that declared Walmart was going to accept Litecoin as a payment method.
A number of media outlets treated this as breaking news — unsurprising given how Walmart is one of the world's biggest retailers.
But in crypto circles, some red flags were starting to emerge, given how Litecoin's popularity has waned in recent years.
Bitcoin Cash is very much in a similar predicament. While the likes of BTC and ETH are at or near all-time highs, BCH remains 85% below the record price of $4,355 set back in December 2017.
Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash have been touted as more efficient payment methods because they can offer faster transactions at lower cost — and indeed, both cryptocurrencies are among the four digital assets that have been embraced by PayPal.
