The price of the Binance native coin took a sharp dip following fake news regarding company chief Changpeng Zhao. However, it rapidly recovered as the rumors dissipated.
Some miscreants appear to have nothing better to do than spread fake news and FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt.)
SponsoredThe latest round of crypto crud to hit Twitter was a rumor of Interpol action against Changpeng Zhao. On April 4, Ben Armstrong, aka “Bitboy_Crypto,” told his million followers about the rumor.
“Rumor is Interpol has put out a Red Notice for CZ. This isn’t public on Interpol site,” he said. He added that “this is dumb and I hope it isn’t true.”
The rumor was initiated by crypto Twitter character “Cobie,” who posted a SHA256 hash of five words that read “Interpol Red Notice for CZ.” The original tweet has since been deleted.
According to Interpol, a Red Notice is a “request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action.”
CZ Refutes the FUD
Changpeng Zhao was quick to refute the fake news stating that a supposed screenshot from the Interpol website was doctored, adding:
“If you panic sell on FUD or photoshopped images, well, you aren’t likely to become rich. Block the FUD sources.”
A few hours after the dust had settled, Zhao took a swipe at the media outlets that ran the rumor as news. It “hurts the industry and hurts themselves,” he said before adding “there are enough external forces attacking us. Our industry needs to unite at this juncture.”
SponsoredThree Arrows Capital’s Zhu Su echoed the sentiment accusing crypto ‘journalists’ of reporting rumors from personalities on social media for clickbait headlines.
“A lot of it amounts to reporting on rumors, and very poor incentives at reporting in a balanced way vs clickbaity,”
Binance has been swimming in a river of FUD this year, and it doesn’t look like it’s ending soon.
Binance Coin and Crypto Market Reaction
The price of the Binance native BNB coin slumped sharply as the markets reacted to the fake news. A 4% slide in an hour took BNB down to around $300, its lowest price for three weeks.
However, as panicked sellers realized their mistakes, BNB quickly rebounded. The exchange asset is trading at the same price it was yesterday, $310. This has kept it within its seven-day range-bound channel.
Moreover, the CZ FUD didn’t just affect BNB. Bitcoin dropped almost 3% at the time but has also recovered to trade at $27,932 at the time of writing.
Total market capitalization is up 1.2% on the day at $1.21 trillion, according to CoinGecko.
