A fake press release on Global Newswire claimed that Walmart had partnered with the Litecoin Foundation and that the supermarket chain would start accepting Litecoin payments at their locations.
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A tweet followed that shared the verified Litecoin account’s press release on Twitter. The account then deleted the tweet a few moments later.
Litecoin’s price then rose up to 26% as the news spread on social media. It then fell sharply within its previous range.
https://www.tradingview.com/symbols/LTCUSD/?exchange=COINBASE
The press release was exposed as fake when some Twitter users discovered that the email domain used by the account that created the press release had only been registered last month and did not lead to any official website.
The press release was relatively complex and structured like any press release would look. It even contained fake quotes from Walmart’s CEO Doug McMillion claiming the store was “committed to innovating the online shopping experience.”
Walmart has since told Bloomberg that the publication was indeed a fake.
This story evolves.
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