Eli Lilly stock price succumbs to fake tweets, Twitter removes checkmarks from Twitter Blue, and FTX gets hacked.
For all these tech news trending right now, welcome to Trending Hashtags. It’s Monday, November 14th, and I’m your host, Tom Lee.
Eli Lilly, the pharmaceutical company that commercialized insulin nearly 100 years ago, saw its share price drop 4.5 percent after a Twitter user falsely posing as the company’s official account tweeted that insulin would be offered free of charge. The source of the confusion is, you guessed it, the checkmark next to the account name, which was obtained by paying $8 per month. The account did not mark itself as a parody account, a new requirement introduced after Elon Musk appeared on the platform. Apart from Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi, two other major suppliers of insulin, also saw their stock prices fall.
Source: investors
The previous story was just one example of how impostor accounts are taking advantage of the confusion to post fake tweets, often posing as a brand or public figure, including Elon Musk. This was clearly a problem for Twitter, which is probably why it removed the system. In a tweet, Musk condemned the impersonators, saying it was not okay to trick people. His backpedaling is in stark contrast to his previous stance, in which he vehemently defended the system when faced with criticism.
Source: Ars Technica
Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse for doomed crypto exchange FTX, the company is now caught between a bankruptcy filing and a hack that cost it nearly $500 million. FTX filed for bankruptcy after it was unable to raise a $9 billion rescue package. And since all customers are considered creditors, it will take a long time, possibly months, to find out who owes what, not including the recovery process. There is salt in the wound and no one knows how this happened. For many, FTX’s fall from grace is still unreal. At its peak, it was the third largest crypto exchange in the world.
Source: cnet
To illustrate how damaging the FTX fiasco has been, one hedge fund admitted that half of its capital is now locked up in the platform. Kevin Zhou, co-founder of Galva Capital, apologized for the situation, warning that it could take years to recover a percentage of his assets. It’s not very reassuring, but the situation is almost completely out of their control.
Source: financial Times
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