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| Litecoin Price Rise After Fake Press Release |
Following a fake press release claiming that Walmart has started accepting it as a payment method, the price of the Litecoin cryptocurrency has increased by 20%.
The news release was posted on GlobeNewswire, which links to a faulty website, and there is no evidence that any documents were filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which Walmart has been expecting since its publication.
The official Walmart newsroom does not contain the content of the post. The company typically uses Business Wire to publish content.
Several news outlets published reports based on misleading press releases and shortly thereafter the price of Litecoin rose along with the prices of other cryptocurrencies and then quickly returned to previous levels.
It is not clear who could be behind the misleading press release. However, Walmart spokesperson Randy Hargrove confirmed that the news was false. He also said that retailers are reaching out to news companies to investigate how the fake press releases were being published.
Cryptocurrencies - up 33% at times - have lost almost all of their profits. Bitcoin, the largest digital asset, is down 2% after rising nearly 4% earlier.
Other digital assets also collapsed, with Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and EOS all dropping.
The news spread quickly on Twitter and crypto-fans were excited to see another big name behind the move. Although they questioned why Wal-Mart is working with a cryptocurrency that is less known and less used than Bitcoin.
Litecoin Price Rise After Fake Press Release
Within minutes, the news of really good news for cryptocurrencies became an issue for the entire industry. The threat of market manipulation has always been the focus of regulatory attention for these assets, and that's about it.
According to reports, cryptocurrency scams are nothing new. In the summer of 2020, the Twitter accounts of some of America's most famous politicians and business leaders were hacked, apparently to promote a Bitcoin hoax. Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos, and Warren Buffett were the targets of this attack.
One of the efforts behind the Litecoin scam is to generate email addresses based on fake domain names. Except for fake press releases with quotes from Walmart executives.
Scams that affect asset prices have always appeared in the financial markets. Cryptocurrency appears to be a particularly fertile ground for scammers.