The Rumor Mill Goes Into Overdrive

bitcoin space is a constant battle of truth versus untruth, rumor versus fact and optimism versus pessimism. With market manipulators up to their usual tricks and salty altcoiners crying FUD, it can be hard to tell what’s real and what’s fake. This week truly had it all: keks, lies, and videotape beamed live from the U.S. Senate. Throw in the obligatory multi-million dollar hack, and you’ve got all the makings of another seismic week in bitcoin.

week started with rumors that China was banning bitcoin – yes, again. Not only that but they would be cracking down on mining too and laying the banhammer in Hong Kong into the bargain. It turns out the story was actual fake news, but that didn’t stop a couple of lesser publications from running with it. It was an elaborate hoax that showed much more sophistication than the average Nigerian phishing email, and was clearly an attempt at shorting the markets for monetary gain. As we reported:

The objective of the bogus email’s senders was to spread rumours and panic, in the hope of manipulating the price of bitcoin, after taking short positions on bitcoin futures and betting that the price of bitcoin will fall, said Leonhard Weese, president of the Hong Kong bitcoin association.

Discrediting fake news is one thing, but what about news that’s yet to occur? Who do you believe when it comes to predicting bitcoin’s future movements? Two very different sources gave their views on where bitcoin’s headed this year, one pessimistic, the other largely optimistic. While a central banker was trotting out the usual apocalyptic proclamations about bitcoin being a Ponzi and a disaster, a group of luminaries were predicting more positive price movements for the year ahead