A viral news report features Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman announcing a strategic partnership with Quantum Trade, a purported crypto trading platform. Additionally, the report includes a link to a purported Fox News interview in which Elon Musk revealed that he has launched a new Quantum trading platform called Quantum Trade. In this piece, we aim to verify the veracity of these reports.
Claim: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman announcing a strategic partnership with crypto trading platform named Quantum Trade.
Fact: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman did not declare any partnership with a crypto trading platform named Quantum Trade. The video depicting her announcement of such a partnership has been digitally altered. Additionally, the link which redirects to an article stating that Elon Musk announcing Quantum Trade platform at a Fox News show is fabricated. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman has neither declared any collaboration with a trading platform, as asserted in the viral post nor has she made statements aligning with such claims. If there were indeed such a partnership, media outlets would have covered the news. Nevertheless, no reports confirming such an alliance were found.
The viral video that appears to show Nirmala Sitaraman making these comments has been digitally manipulated. The video is likely derived from her recent press conference on government initiatives for Tamil Nadu flood relief. While the finance minister’s attire in the manipulated footage matches that of the press conference, the audio has been replaced with a different one, and the lip movements have been digitally altered to align with the new audio.
Regarding the report on Elon Musk’s announcement of a new Quantum trading platform, an online investigation into the alleged quantum trading project yielded no information. The widely circulated news interview appears to be fabricated, and there is no authentic Fox News interview in which Elon Musk revealed the launch of a trading platform.
Additionally, the report includes excerpts from Musk’s interview with CBS. However, our search did not uncover any CBS report confirming Musk’s announcement of a trading platform, suggesting that this interview might also be fabricated. This follows a pattern of a previous fake interview featuring Elon Musk (here & here), where he purportedly announced a similar trading platform called Quantum AI, underscoring the trend of fraudsters exploiting his name to deceive people.
Upon further examination, it was discovered that the domain for this website was registered in August 2023 and is set to expire in August 2024. This indicates that the website is likely suspicious, designed with the intent to deceive people for financial fraud. Previously, another website URL was also shared on social media claiming to be associated with a trading platform launched by Elon Musk. Factly had previously debunked the authenticity of that claim.
To sum it up, Nirmala Sitaraman did not announce any partnership with a crypto trading platform named Quantum Trade.
