Price of LTC Jumped by 37% After Fake Press Release
- Claiming that retail giant Walmart was about to adopt Litecoin for payments, the fake press release caused the price of LTC to jump to $235 in less than 30 min.
- A spokesperson for Wallmart told CNBC the press release was “not authentic” roughly an hour after it was posted, causing the price of the crypto to fall to normal levels.
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The price of Litecoin (LTC) rose sharply earlier today, after a fake press release claimed the Litecoin Foundation had partnered with U.S. retail giant Walmart.
A press release published at 9:30 ET on distribution service website GlobeNewsWire, which has since been deleted, claimed that on 1 October retail giant Walmart will launch a “Pay with Litecoin Option”. The dubious release further claimed Walmart had chosen to adopt the cryptocurrency as it was “cheaper and faster” than other options, and it had no central authority.
After being picked by major news organizations like Reuters and CNBC, as well as getting a re-tweet from the Litecoin Foundation by mistake, the fake press release quickly spread, causing the price of the currency to rise sharply.
According to data from Coingecko, the price of LTC surged from $171 to more than $235, a whopping 37% increase, in less than 30 minutes, but has since dropped back to $179.
Roughly an hour after the news broke out, a spokesperson for Walmart told CNBC that the press release was “not authentic”, and that Walmart was investigating how the false report got posted.
- The conference is advertised as an opportunity to meet and chat with Craig Wright himself.
- Wales has expressed severe scepticism of Wright’s claims in the past.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. Engadget
- Coca-Cola’s blockchain pilot will be expanded from 2 to 70 of the manufacturers that bottle and ship nearly 160,000 bottles daily.
- The blockchain solution was developed by German software firm SAP, and aims to improve distribution for all participants in the network.
- Walmart has once again shown its interest in blockchain technology.
- The retail giant has also been involved in cryptocurrency, as shown by another patent application for a U.S. dollar-backed digital currency.