Fake News and FUD in Cryptocurrency – What We Can Learn from the South Korea Incident
The latest round of fake news and FUD in cryptocurrency came about through Reuters who did a very shoddy job of journalism. Basically distilling down a complicated story about potential South Korea regulating of cryptocoin to a flimsy two paragraph wasn’t the way to go. Many key facts were missing such as others were completely distorted.
Bitcoin, understandably, plunged by over $1500 over the next 24 hours. There you go: Fake news and FUD in cryptocurrency in action. FUD, for newcomers, stands for Fear Uncertainty and Doubt. When FUD kicks in cryptocoin investors too often panic and sell – and lose money. FUD was in full effect yesterday as the misconception that digital currencies were doming to an end. What really gave this urban legend legs is the fact South Korea is a very serious center of Bitcoin activity with Bitcoin ATM machines in use since 2014 and wide acceptance of Bitcoin as a payment method by many merchants. Should there actually have been raids of cryptocurrency exchanges (there weren’t) and had a cryptocoin ban been put in in place (there wasn’t), the simultaneous drop of so many cryptocoins would make perfect sense…… until they rebounded which is what would have happened inevitably. I explained this last month.
Regardless, other branches of government in South Korea quickly set the record straight with truth and fact. Now with this dark cloud lifted cryptocurrency markets can return to relative normalcy.
So how do you combat fake news and FUD in cryptocurrency? You ignore it. Pay it no mind. Cover your ears and shout out loud “LA LA LA LA”.
With the Reuters South Korea debacle it’s become more difficult to rely on even trusted news sources with the risk of fake news being so high. At this point I can reliably trust on cryptocoin news out of Bloomberg and CNBC as being accurate and trustworthy. Even if the most trusted news source announces doom and gloom there’s no reason to engage in FUD. Cryptocoin is here to stay and nothing can stand in its way.
