The price of Litecoin rallied to $236 in 15 mins at the start of the New York trading session following inaccurate reports that Walmart would be introducing a payment option for the cryptocurrency on all its websites.
GlobeNewswire issued a statement stating that Walmart had agreed to partner with Litecoin and accept the cryptocurrency as payment. As soon as the statement was released, Litecoin soared as much as 33% on the announcement, with other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin gaining as well.
After investors realized that the news was fake, Litecoin erased almost all of its gain, in the next 15 mins candle as the coin is now trading $176.95, a price point it was trading before the rally.
According to reports from CNBC, a Walmart spokesperson stated that the company has not agreed to partner with Litecoin, discrediting the statement released earlier in the day that sent LTC soaring. Randy Hargrove confirmed the press release is not authentic. He also said that Walmart has been in touch with Newswire company to investigate how the false press release got posted.
A spokesperson for Intrado, which operates GlobeNewswire, stated that the company is removing the release from its website and is investigating the incident. Statistics from its website states that Intrado distributes 200,000 press releases per year.
What you should know
- Walmart has previously hinted it would be looking into cryptocurrencies. In August, the company opened a job position for an expert who could develop a digital currency strategy and product roadmap but did not specifically mention it would be introducing a path for cryptocurrency payments.
- Walmart which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange is currently trading $145.63 per share, currently down 0.19%. Year-to-Date (YtD), the share price is down marginally by 0.61% as of the time of this writing.