FAKE NEWS ALERT: Walmart-Litecoin Partnership - CoinQuora

Walmart and Litecoin will not partner—we repeat—Walmart and Litecoin will not partner.

Now that we’ve got that cleared, let’s look at what happened.

Monday saw the crypto community brimming with excitement and enthusiasm as early in the day, reporting agency GlobeNewswire shared a press release stating that Walmart and Litecoin were entering into a partnership. To gauge the impact of this announcement, consider that Litecoin jumped about 30% in value in response.

Read Also: Litecoin LTC Price Prediction

To clarify, starting at $175 at the time of the fake PR, the coin shot up to a value of $230. Traders swiftly swooped in to get a piece of the retail giant-leading crypto pie. Less than 24 hours later, the coin is back at $177 as the slow realization of a scam hits the crypto space.

Still, it’s no surprise that users fell for it. What with all the buzz around cryptocurrencies and large companies’ interest in them, it seemed entirely possible that this could happen. However, the 16th rank coin still seemed an odd choice for the market-leading Walmart. In an ironic fashion, LTC’s official Twitter account also shared the news quickly, without fact-checking the claim. Litecoin apologized for this action later.

Moreover, Walmart was the first to debunk the news. It released an official notice on its website and got in touch with media outlets. In a succinct and direct manner, the notice said:

Walmart had no knowledge of the press release issued by GlobeNewswire, and it is incorrect. Walmart has no relationship with Litecoin.

At the same time, Litecoin quickly corrected the situation as well and released an update confirming that the news was invalid.

Notorious for making blunt statements on social media, Mike Novogratz has always amused the crypto community. Making sure to not let this moment go without commenting, he shared a funny video on his Twitter.

Following the discovery, GlobeNewswire removed the news from their website.