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The Litecoin cryptocurrency saw its price increase by 20% after a fake press release claiming that Walmart had started accepting it as a method of payment.
The press release was released via GlobeNewswire linked to the non-functional site, and there was no evidence of an SEC filing, which was expected since Walmart went public.
Walmart’s official newsroom did not include the release, and the company typically uses Business Wire to distribute the releases.
Several news outlets published reports based on the misleading press release, and shortly thereafter the price of Litecoin surged, along with the prices of other cryptocurrencies, before quickly returning to previous levels.
It is not yet clear who might be behind the misleading press release, but Walmart spokesman Randy Hargrove has confirmed that the announcement is false. He also said the retailer was in contact with the news company to investigate how the statement was released, according to the Arab Tech News Portal.
litecoin cryptocurrency
The cryptocurrency – which rose 33% at one point – has lost almost all of its gains. Bitcoin, the largest digital asset, is down 2% after rising nearly 4% previously.
Other digital assets have plummeted as well, with Bitcoin Cash, Ether, and EOS falling.
The news quickly spread on the Twitter platform and cryptocurrency supporters were excited to see another big name behind the move. This despite the fact that they wonder why Walmart is partnering with a cryptocurrency less known and less used than Bitcoin.
The news went from being very good news for cryptocurrencies to being an industry-wide problem within minutes. The threat of market manipulation has been one of the main points that regulators focus on these assets, and it is what catches their attention.
Crypto scams are reportedly not new. In the summer of 2020, the Twitter accounts of some of America’s most prominent political and business leaders were hacked in an apparent attempt to promote a Bitcoin scam. Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett were all targeted in this attack.
The effort behind the Litecoin hoax included the creation of an email address based on a fake domain name. In addition to a fake press release containing quotes attributed to Wal-Mart executives.
And while asset price hoaxes pop up all the time in financial markets, cryptocurrencies seem to be particularly fertile ground for scammers.
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