Yahoo Finance and Investing.com Falsely Claim Bitcoin Is Down -56%

Clickbait is rampant in the financial press, and it’s especially true for reporting on cryptocurrencies. Oftentimes, such articles are written in an automated fashion by bots. This led to a recent story about Bitcoin, which was just an outright lie. Two major financial sites reported Monday that Bitcoin is down -56%. Yahoo Finance ran with a headline that read “Bitcoin Plunges 56% in Rout.” Investing.com ran with a similar story on Bitcoin apparently trading at $5,991.80. Both stories have since been taken down. The misinformation coming from these supposedly credible outlets is nothing short of shocking. How could such a story be written, let alone published? The reason is that they are often written by bots and made to generate ad revenue through clickbait titles. In this case, the clickbait title was not just a little wrong—it was a complete fabrication regarding the price of Bitcoin. https://twitter.com/mdudas/status/1224749347566387200 Such misinformation has the potential to seriously distort markets. Given that algorithmic bots in the cryptocurrency market usually trade on headlines, fake news can hurt short-term price movements unfairly. Luckily, that didn’t happen this time around, but it’s a sign that editorial standards are low even among the most-viewed financial websites. Such cases are common in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency media, sadly. One notable instance happened in September when a Bloomberg reporter wrote that the NSA was working on a “quantum-resistant crypto.” The entire cryptocurrency media went in a frenzy over the news—only to later find out that the author wasn’t talking about cryptocurrencies at all, but instead meant cryptography. Many media outlets ran with the story anyway. Fake news hurts the cryptocurrency market as a whole and should be called out immediately. Luckily, Bitcoin isn’t down -56%. Actually, it’s up, much to the relief of traders. At the time of writing, the leading cryptocurrency is up +4.58% on the daily and is currently trading above the $9,500 mark. Hopefully, Yahoo Finance and Investing.com take this fake news fiasco as a lesson on how to not conduct its editorial practices.