Walmart Announces They Will NOT Accept Litecoin And Calls Press Release A Hoax

A bogus press release by several mainstream news outlets yesterday falsely claimed that Walmart was going to accept Litecoin as a payment option.

A false press release that looked as if it came from the Litecoin Foundation was released by GlobeNewswire and claimed that Walmart has established a partnership with Litecoin.

The fake news caused Litecoin to spike up to 30% but once Walmart found out about the press release they cleared the air and said they currently have no partnership with Litecoin.

Litecoin sent out an official press release to stop the rumors too and said that the press relase did not come from anyone with the Litecoin Foundation.

An official statement regarding today's false news – Charlie Lee will be live on Bloomberg today at 2pm PST addressing the subject. pic.twitter.com/x7z7NZ02nZ

— Litecoin Foundation (@LTCFoundation) September 13, 2021

This market is so easy to manipulate, I wonder how many millions were made by whoever started this? #litecoinhttps://t.co/tLFNe8gUqI

— Lark Davis (@TheCryptoLark) September 14, 2021

Pure comedy:

– Phony article released about Walmart partnering with Litecoin
– Multiple mainstream news outlets report false story
– Litecoin skyrockets up 25% on the BS
– Story debunked
– Gains erased in minutes

There's good reasons to not take this stuff so seriously 🤣

— Shibetoshi Nakamoto (@BillyM2k) September 13, 2021

Reuters had more on the story

Walmart Inc (WMT.N) said on Monday it was looking into how a fake press statement announcing a partnership with litecoin, which briefly led to near 30% gains in the cryptocurrency, was issued by news release distributor GlobeNewswire.

The fake press release touting the acceptance of litecoin as online payment by the world’s largest retailer led to a sudden spike in its prices, but the gains faded quickly after Walmart issued a statement saying the press release was fraudulent.

“Walmart had no knowledge of the press release issued by GlobeNewswire and there is no truth to it. Walmart has no relationship with litecoin,” a company spokesperson told Reuters.

GlobeNewswire published a notice to “disregard” the news release and said it had put in place enhanced authentication steps to prevent a similar incident from occurring in the future.

Walmart accepting Litecoin is fake news.

Walmart imminently to accept #bitcoin in El Salvador is real.

— Peter McCormack (@PeterMcCormack) September 13, 2021

Litecoin is also facing backlash because an employee who managed Litecoin’s Twitter account retweeted the fake news and caused made investors to believe the deal with Walmart was real.

Bloomberg had more on the mistake by Litecoin:

The Litecoin Foundation “screwed up” after one of its employees retweeted what turned out to be an untrue announcement about a partnership with Walmart Inc., said its managing director.

“We try our best to not tweet fake news and this time we really screwed up,” Charlie Lee, creator of Litecoin and managing director of the foundation, said on the “Bloomberg Technology” television program. “I deny that it has anything to do with us and we’ll try our best to figure out who did it — and we will stop fake news from spreading.”

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