On September 9th, rumors swirled in the cryptocurrency world. False media reports claimed that Blackrock, the world’s largest investment firm, would acquire crypto lending platform Voyager Digital.
Voyager filed for bankruptcy in 2022 and has been in trouble ever since. According to rumors, the crypto company will be taken over by BlackRock. However, it soon became apparent that this was an unreliable source.
Voyager cryptocurrency surges after BlackRock fake news takeover
Despite the warnings, many media outlets contributed to spreading false reporting without proper verification. In fact, one of those sources was the respected Associated Press (AP), which published the rumor as an official press release.
Journalist Colin Wu quickly reported that the press release did not come from Voyager, but from a fake account on Twitter with only one follower.
Someone created a fake news that BlackRock is planning to acquire Voyager Digital to pump tokens. The Associated Press website even published it with paid content. The social media source mentioned in the press release is a Chinese account with only one fan. VGX has increased 8% in the last 24 years… pic.twitter.com/ypLSeuTn7r
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) September 9, 2023
The rumors directly impacted the value of Voyager’s own digital currency called VGX. Within hours of the fake news spreading, the value of the VGX token temporarily rose to a high of $0.15335.
It is not yet known who is behind the spread of the fake news. Apparently, the main goal was to increase the value of the VGX token in a manipulative manner.
Although the plan initially seemed to work, it was soon discovered that it was fake news, causing the value of the digital currency to drop by 15%. The price of VGX only rose by 8% after the false reports. However, the VGX token has once again risen sharply in the last 24 hours. After a 9% increase, VGX reaches a price of $0.136 at the time of writing.
Crypto news verification is of great importance
The incident once again underlines the importance of due diligence when verifying information. Especially in the fast-moving crypto market, it is important to continue to critically examine the origin of news.
Even after the fake news was confirmed to be false, some media outlets were reluctant to retract their stories. The sharp price fluctuations of VGX serve as a warning about the volatility of the crypto market and the consequences of spreading false information.
In July this year, the financial world was still in turmoil with news of the resignation of Gary Gensler, chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. It later turned out that the messages were generated by artificial intelligence (AI).