Fake News About Walmart Partnership with Litecoin
Charlie Lee Denies Involvement
On the evening of September 13, an article from news release platform GlobeNewswire claiming that Walmart would be accepting Litecoin payments starting on October 1 spread rapidly throughout the cryptocurrency community.
This news led to a surge in Litecoin prices, reaching nearly 30% increase to $225.75, as well as a slight increase in Bitcoin prices.
However, Walmart later released a statement denying the news as fake and claiming to have no knowledge of the report. Many investors were disappointed, and Litecoin and Bitcoin prices quickly fell.
The incident has been questioned as a pump and dump scheme, with some speculating that false news was intentionally spread to boost market sentiment before cashing out on the high prices.
Litecoin founder Charlie Lee later spoke out about the incident, denying any involvement in the fake news and admitting that the Litecoin Foundation posted the news on Twitter without verifying it.
GlobeNewswire is reportedly working with authorities to investigate the incident and strengthen their identity verification system for news submissions.
(Litecoin price chart showing the surge and subsequent fall during the incident)
(Walmart logo - the company that was falsely rumored to be accepting Litecoin payments)
(GlobeNewswire logo - the platform that released the false news report)
Charlie Lee Denies Fake News About Walmart Partnership
Charlie Lee, the creator of Litecoin, has denied the recent fake news about a partnership with Walmart. He stated that fake news is prevalent both in the cryptocurrency industry and the traditional stock market.
According to Charlie Lee, the fake news about Walmart did not come from the Litecoin Foundation. He emphasized that it was not from their side and that he had to deny it. He also revealed that the Litecoin Foundation did not benefit from the fake news leading to a price hike.
Charlie Lee further stated that Litecoin is a decentralized project, meaning that anyone could spread fake news with the motive to do so. Despite this, he still apologized for the Litecoin Foundation inadvertently sharing the news on Twitter.
Charlie Lee concluded that the Litecoin Foundation would verify the accuracy of news content in the future to prevent spreading false information.