The crypto industry has seen a couple of fake news in the past week alone. First, an erroneous news report claiming that BlackRock Inc. had received the green light to launch a spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) spurred the crypto’s price to a new high from $27,900 to $30,000.
Following the fake news claims, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a major warning, pointing fingers at the reliability of online information.
Now, a second similar incident has sparked confusion among crypto industry players, placing the authenticity of crypto news reporting at stake.
Roblox Denies XRP Support
Reports circulated on Tuesday that Ripple (XRP) has joined with Roblox, the leading gaming platform, to introduce its token as a new payment option for in-game purchases.
However, the gaming giant has denied such rumors, claiming the news to be “inaccurate.” Roblox spokesperson confirmed that the news is false and that it supports only credit cards, debit cards, gift cards, PayPal, Venmo, Klarna, CVS Pharmacy payments, or a Paysafecard for its in-game purchases.
The rumors began soon after crypto payment processor BitPay posted on X (Tweet) that XRP users can use the token for Xsolla payments in supported games, including Smite and Roblox.
Later, BitPay deleted the post after Roblox told Decrypt that the “info isn’t accurate.”
“Unfortunately, we’ve seen quite a few articles on this and the info is inaccurate.”
The BitPay spokesperson also confirmed that Roblox does not support cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or XRP as a payment mode, although Xsolla is still one of the payment providers for the gaming platform.
Prominent crypto investor Scott Melker Tweeted Tuesday that Roblox is also teaming up with BitPay to bring XRP, which signals a “more favorable legal climate for the token.”
Roblox re-confirmed that the company is not pairing with BitPay, nor bringing XRP to its payments.
Later, BitPay team told the publication that there had been an error in the Tweet. “We will have more tweets about merchants accepting crypto in the near future. Stay tuned,” BitPay CMO Bill Zielke said.
Fake News Propaganda in Crypto
This is not the first or only incident of fake claims spreading across the crypto industry.
In 2021, the price of Litecoin shot up about 30%, following a fake news release that claimed to be issued by retail giant Walmart that it would accept Litecoin as a payment method. In the same year, another fake claim said that the SEC had dismissed a lawsuit against Ripple.
All three firms – Walmart, Ripple and Litecoin – quickly distanced themselves from fake news, citing their fraudulent nature.