Michael Saylor spread misinformation about Trump removing taxes on Bitcoin on his X alongside other popular accounts.
MicroStrategy’s executive chair has become the latest victim of misinformation involving presidential candidate Donald Trump and Bitcoin, spreading unverified information to his 3.6 million X followers.
“‘They have them paying tax on crypto and I don’t think that’s right. #Bitcoin is money and you have to pay capital gains tax if you use it to buy a coffee? I was talking with a friend he said ‘it really shouldn’t be taxed’ and I agree.’ – @realDonaldTrump,” Saylor posted on October 30.
The US Presidential election, scheduled for November 6, is less than a week away. Many voters are also participating in early voting. With that occurring, social media platforms like X are booming with misinformation about what presidential candidates said or did as last-ditch efforts to sway votes. The fake quote Saylor posted about Trump is one example of how misinformation spreads in such crucial times.
Misinformation Starts Somewhere…
That quote looks to be manufactured and originally posted by X user Basedkarbon on October 28. They posted it saying the Republican candidate “is flirting with the idea of making crypto tax free” and that he uttered the words in “a recent interview.”
Basedkarbon’s post manufactured more than what Saylor posted on his X, including, “Maybe we get rid of taxes on crypto and replace it with tariffs,” adding, “No tax on crypto but only on tokens made in the USA. We want tokens made here at home, we don’t want the Chinese tokens. We say get those Chinese tokens out of here.”
The false information was also posted by the crypto podcast Good Morning Crypto on October 29, further spreading it within crypto circles. Other well-known crypto-related X accounts, including Kraken, Bitcoin Archive, and more, fell for the misinformation and spread it to large swaths of users.
Basedkarbon took to X again to clarify that their initial post was indeed misinformation, saying, “(N)o taxes on crypto is a microcosm example of how information works.” They added, “(T)he only reason things are true are because someone says something is true.” While the post did not provide any clarity beyond that, it looks like Basedkarbon decided to troll users and see how far they could go or conduct a social experiment to understand the extent to which misinformation can spread.
