23 November 2019 | AtoZMarkets.com - On Thursday the crypto twitter exploded with the fake Binance Shanghai office police raid news. We also studied the report and the market move suggesting that there was a correlation with Bitcoin price dip and the fake news publication, too. Bitcoin price at the moment at around $7,200 zone.
Now it is time for Binance push-back. Everyone from Binance called the Binance Office Raid story fake and "FUD". As a final point, Binance CEO CZ has said that they will sue the block for fake news.
Fake Police Raid news
When we initially found out that this news is under the publisher's paid subscription category, we suggested that it is likely a gameplan to get more paid subscribers. Nonetheless, the story developed as the following:
- The block announced that Binance shut down their Shanghai office in recent weeks;
- They connected the closure of the office to Police Raid;
- The source commented that there are pictures and multiple sources, however without showing neither any source, nor any clear picture;
- CryptoPanic picked the news, and it spread rapidly;
- CZ initially said no office, no police, no raid;
- Once the news spread that the fake news caused the Bitcoin price dip, the community got angry now they demand justice;
- Today, CZ announced that Binance will sue TheBlock for fake news.
Are Crypto exchanges in China working against Binance?
There are currently quite a few small and large crypto exchanges in China. Binance CEO CZ twitted multiple times couple of crypto exchanges in China are working on fake news against Binance. The following is what CZ said in a latest tweet:
" I know of a couple of exchanges in china that have 7+ and 12+ people teams whose only job is to write negative content about Binance. But they have to mention Binance name to do their job. I hope they don't stop because of this tweet."
The following is the list of top 3 Crypto exchanges in China:
- Huobi
- KuCoin
- OKcoin
These exchanges are also, among the top 20 exchanges by means of volume and users. As a result, creating negative news would not help them either. These exchanges need to understand that the more people are scared the less likely that they will generate new users. Hence, such news as this fake Binance office raid is not beneficial for anybody at all.
Frank Chaparro defends their report
Frank Chaparro is the Directory of News at the Block. When the crypto community started backfiring and calling them fake news portal, Chaparro defended their story.
According to Frank Chaparro, Caijing.com confirms that Binance has two offices in Shanghai. He continued further that, their source is a close ally of Binance and the source also confirmed that these offices house up to 200 people.
Regarding to the binance office police raid, Chaparro confirmed that their source is an anonymous Binance employee as an eyewitness. According to the eyewitness, Chinese officials visited one of the Binance offices prior to the shutdown. However, he also confirms that it was rather a visit, not a raid. It seems like they used the "RAID" as a clickbait to attract attention.
Binance will sue theBlock on Defamation
The Binance community is pushing the company for a clear action. Some of the community members are directly asking Binance to sue the Block. As an answer to one of the Tweets, CZ replied that "We (implying Binance) will sue them (implying the Block)."
After that tweet, CZ commented that he gave the Block a chante to apologize:
"Already gave them a chance to apologize, but they haven't. You Don't FUD about a fake "Police raid" then just change the title."
Will Binance sue the Block on defamation or not is one question. However, no matter the result, many people lost too much money this week. People are angry!
Not the first, not the last fake news!
This is not the first neither will it be the last fake news. The media knows that China plays an important role in the cryptocurrency industry. On the 21st of March 2014, there was another fake news that China Banned Bitcoin, which immediately had a massive impact on Bitcoin price, collapsing the Bitcoin price below $600 then.
The impact of that fake news was an 18% drop in Bitcoin price in 2 days too.
Share your story with us!
We believe in decentralized news! Therefore we encourage our readers to be our guest bloggers. Not like any media, we will also be paying our top-rated guest bloggers too! Join us, contact AtoZMarkets editorial team now.