You simply can’t trust the news these days…
Recently a fake press release started circulating on the internet which claimed a partnership between Walmart and the cryptocurrency Litecoin. When the fake news went as far as to state that Walmart will start accepting Litecoin as an authentic form of payment from its customers, it didn’t take long for the prices of the cryptocurrency to sky-rocket before crashing back down again.
The news was later debunked by Walmart and confirmed that it was a fake announcement. Walmart even contacted the press release distribution service GlobeNewswire to find out the culprit behind posting such news and getting away with it. What’s more hilarious is that the fake release also included alleged quotes from Doug McMillion, Walmart CEO and Charlie Lee, Litecoin creator. The original press release has been taken down but an archived version of it can still be found online (the wonders of the internet where nothing is ever really lost) which states that “Walmart would offer their shoppers [sic] to use Litecoin to benefit from the features of cryptocurrency.”
As soon as the fake press release was “released”, the price of Litecoin quickly climbed about 20%, before it came crashing back down after finding the truth about the news. Maybe someone was filming a prank video and everyone buying Litecoin were the targets before they finally realized what was actually happening.
This wouldn’t be the first time someone tried to manipulate crypto prices before everyone finally caught on to what was actually happening. Back in February, Elon Musk posted a cryptic tweet that led to an 11% decrease in bitcoin prices in a matter of minutes. In the world of cryptocurrency, where every second matters, some false claims can have drastic results.