A press release claiming Walmart would accept Litecoin caused the cryptocurrency to skyrocket in value on Monday morning—but only briefly. The cryptocurrency has since taken a massive dive amid reports the press release about the Walmart-Litecoin partnership is fake.
CNBC was among the first media outlets to report the partnership, citing a press release from GlobeNewswire, which helps companies distribute corporate PR to media outlets.
“We’re very excited to be working together with the Litecoin Foundation, and further innovate our business. Starting October 1st, all eCommerce stores will have implemented a ‘Pay with Litecoin Option,'” the document says, citing a statement from Walmart’s CEO.
However, about 30 minutes later, CNBC announced that Walmart itself had confirmed the press release was a sham.
It’s unclear how the fake press release managed to circulate on GlobeNewswire’s systems. Someone hacking an existing Walmart account with GlobeNewswire? An imposter applying for a GlobeNewswire account on behalf of Walmart? Intrado, which owns the service, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But the company has since taken down the fake press release, which referenced Walmart.com as the original source behind the news.
Walmart also didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But the fake press release was likely part of a pump-and-dump scheme intended to hike up the price of Litecoin, and sell it off for a profit. News of the purported partnership caused Litecoin to jump from $175 to $231 in just 25 minutes. However, the scheme didn’t last for long. The value of Litecoin immediately began to tank from $231 down to $182 within the next half hour as news of the fake press release began to circulate.
The fake news was likely seen as credible because last month Walmart issued a job posting for a “Digital Currency and Cryptocurrency Product Lead.”
