Walmart and Litecoin cryptocurrency are not partnering together

Walmart is the biggest retailer in the USA, according to the National Retail Federation. So, an announcement of a partnership with a cryptocurrency could be massive information.

On the morning of Sept. 13, a press release was circulated by GlobeNewswire, a service that distributes press releases to media organizations, that stated Walmart had teamed up with Litecoin to just accept the cryptocurrency as a type of cost. Instantly following the press launch, folks on social media with hundreds of thousands of followers started sharing the information. Information organizations, together with Reuters and CNBC, revealed tales in regards to the partnership announcement.

Is Walmart partnering with Litecoin cryptocurrency?

No, Walmart will not be partnering with Litecoin. The press launch linking Walmart and Litecoin was pretend.

Walmart and Litecoin Basis each stated the press launch was pretend and that they don’t have a partnership.

“Walmart had no data of the press launch issued by GlobeNewswire, and it’s incorrect. Walmart has no relationship with Litecoin,” the Walmart statement said.

“The Litecoin Basis has not entered right into a partnership with Walmart of any type,” the Litecoin Foundation statement said.

In response to its assertion, the Litecoin Basis stated a member of its social media crew tweeted in regards to the illegitimate partnership on the Litecoin Twitter account. That tweet was then deleted.

GlobeNewswire later issued a notice to ignore the press launch. In an emailed assertion to VERIFY, the corporate stated a fraudulent consumer account issued the pretend press launch.

“This has by no means occurred earlier than and we now have already put in place enhanced authentication steps to stop this remoted incident from occurring sooner or later,” the corporate advised VERIFY.

Each Reuters and CNBC up to date their tales with corrections after the Walmart-Litecoin partnership had been debunked.

Instantly following the distribution of the pretend press launch, the worth of Litecoin surged.

According to CoinMarketCap, a cryptocurrency price-tracking web site, the worth of Litecoin was round $175 Monday morning and skyrocketed to only over $230 following the pretend press launch. As soon as the phrase unfold that Litecoin and Walmart weren’t partnering collectively, the cryptocurrency’s value fell to round $180.

The hoax partnership announcement gave the impression to be a case of value manipulation – or a pump and dump – the place somebody fraudulently causes the worth of one thing to go up and cashes out earlier than it goes again down.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission says digital currencies and digital tokens are largely unregulated and urges shoppers to make use of warning when shopping for digital forex.

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