Retailer Walmart issued a press release on Monday, September 13, to clarify a false report about its previous announcement of a partnership with Litecoin (LTC), stating that the company has no relationship with Litecoin.
The clarification was released on the same day after a fake press release issued by GlobeNewswire. This false press release indicated that Walmart would accept shoppers to use Litecoin as a method of payment. Other well-known media organizations have also reported this news. After Walmart’s official verification, these media companies all corrected timely.
In the previous fake press release mentioning the partnership with Wal-Mart, Litecoin quickly rose by 20%. After the news was corrected, Litecoin withdrew from the increase. At the time of writing, Litecoin was trading at $177.28 with a slight increase in 24 hours, according to Coinmarketcap.
Yet, Walmart’s stock price did not fluctuate sharply because of this incident.
Walmart spokesperson Randy Hargrove said the press release was untrue. It also mentioned that Walmart’s team actively contacted the news line company to investigate how the fake press release was issued.
GlobeNewswire media agency stated that the false news was released from a fraudulent user account. A spokesperson representing GlobeNewswire responded to the incident:
“This has never happened before and we have already put in place enhanced authentication steps to prevent this isolated incident from occurring in the future. We will work with the appropriate authorities to request – and facilitate – a full investigation, including into any criminal activity associated with this matter.”
At 9:50 am Eastern Time, Litecoin issued a press release on its official Twitter account stating that Charlie Lee, the managing director of the Litecoin Foundation, would respond to this incident.
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