For a few hours on Monday morning, Walmart shoppers believed they would be able to pay for their goods using cryptocurrency. The news came from GlobeNewswire, which sent out a press release stating that the commerce giant would launch a “pay with Litecoin” option next month.
Unfortunately for Litecoin/Walmart fans, this turned out to be fake news. The press release was deleted after only a few hours, and Walmart spokesperson Randy Hargrove confirmed to CNBC that it was “not authentic.”
All of this sent the price of Litecoin on a short roller coaster ride. When the fake press release came out, its price surged 30 percent, going from $170 to $230 in mere minutes. However, it quite quickly returned to just above that initial number when the press release turned out to be fake. As of press time, GlobeNewswire had not commented on how the fake press release got out.
