Crypto prices declining as false news of coronavirus continue to spread
- Fake news about coronavirus continues to spread all over the web, and many believe that this might be the reason behind the recent crypto price crash.
- Theorists believe that crypto investors started to panic due to fake news, and decided to sell off their coins.
- Social media networks, primarily Facebook, are trying to fight the fake news by blocking ads that even mention the virus.
As many are likely aware, the start of the new decade was marked by quite a few incidents and bad news, one of which was coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China. Even now, the virus continues to spread, slowly traveling from one country to another after managing to leave China. However, along with the virus, there was also a major spread of fake news, which may have had a negative influence on the prices of numerous cryptocurrencies.
Of course, there is no evidence of a direct
connection between the crypto market correction and the virus itself. However,
many believe that the signs are there, for those who are willing to see them. The
theory claims that, as the virus continues to spread, a flurry of fake news
conquers social media. Meanwhile, the investors are starting to panic, which
caused a mild price correction to evolve into a serious price decline.
While this may seem like an over-exaggeration,
the fact is that the crypto markets lost around $50 billion as the selloffs
started to grow. Even the last 24 hours brought the total crypto market cap
down by 7.5%, leaving it at $240 billion. Even Bitcoin itself dropped through a
number of key support levels, where the last one being high in the $8k range.
The next strongest key level sits at $8,300,
and if this level breaks, the entire altcoin market might follow in the largest
coin’s crash. For now, however, BTC is managing to hold at around $8,700 — a
price that the coin also held around a month ago.
Also, the rest of the market saw major losses,
with ETH dropping by 9%, while many other altcoins lost even more.
Fake news regarding the virus hit
social media
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Meanwhile, the fake news about coronavirus appears to be spreading faster than the virus, and most of it is happening on social media. Facebook has often been a major epicenter of misinformation, and the company contributed to fighting fake news by blocking all ads related to the virus or even mentioning it.
Simultaneously, China — where the virus
originally emerged — works hard to control its own media and decide which
information to release.
Apart from Facebook, a lot of misinformation was also
reported on YouTube, including wild conspiracy theories
about a virus being developed in a Chinese lab as a bio-weapon, and its
connection to 5G rollout.
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