Litecoin spikes 34 percent in 15 minutes on fraudulent Walmart press release

[Shawn Knight]

Why it matters: Litecoin values spiked by more than 34 percent for a brief period Monday morning after a bogus press release claimed Walmart would begin accepting the cryptocurrency. The whole fiasco, which lasted less than an hour, demonstrates the incredible influence that a major company can have on the crypto market.

The press release was shared on GlobeNewswire, a PR distribution platform used by many companies. The problem, however, is that Walmart normally uses Business Wire to help distribute its press releases to media outlets. What’s more, the GlobeNewswire piece linked to a non-functioning website and as The Verge further highlights, there was no associated Securities and Exchange Commission filling which one would expect considering Walmart is a publicly traded company.

Walmart never posted the news release on its corporate website.

Nevertheless, several news outlets published stories based on the fake press release, and Litecoin’s value went from around $175 to more than $236 in just 15 minutes.

It didn’t take long for people to catch on to the hoax. Less than 40 minutes after reaching the $233 mark, Litecoin was back down to around $178.

It’s unclear who was responsible for the bogus press release. A spokesperson for Walmart confirmed to CNBC that the release was not authentic, adding that they have reached out to the PR firm to investigate how the post made it out.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to determine a plausible motive behind the fake press release: short-term financial gain. By swinging the market so suddenly, whoever was behind it likely sold off their holdings at the peak and walked away with a sizable profit.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/91219-litecoin-spikes-34-percent-15-minutes-fraudulent-walmart.html

 

[Squid Surprise]

Hopefully more and more of these things will happen... and maybe people will start fact-checking before buying stuff - or, *gasp* journalists might start fact-checking before publishing articles...

 

[Lew Zealand]

Who are these journalists you speak of? They used to exist but now that everyone expects their information for free, there are no journalists left.

And everyone is getting the quality they paid for.

 

[VitalyT]

It’s unclear who was responsible for the bogus press release

Coined in a toilet on Wall Street. Either do better, or don't bother.

 

[Kosmoz]

Coined in a toilet on Wall Street. Either do better, or don't bother.

 

[elementalSG]

Breaking news: this headline you are reading right now might not be real!

 

[wiyosaya]

Crapto is not easily exploited, is it?

 

[3volv3d]

Crapto is not easily exploited, is it?

Elon musk names his doge I mean dog... And guess what, crypto moves.
The whole thing is a ponzi scheme.
Right now everything is dropping. All reasons for it to go up, seem to make it crash.
And miners claim its the future, and fairer.
It kind of boasts images of Tyler Durden resetting the worlds economy. Just in a more naff nerdy way.
But how is it fair that rich people can buy all this crap, influence it, make themselves even richer, making more of a gap between rich and poor. If you aren't in at the ground floor when it goes up or have enough to buy into a win then its useless.
I guess you can make up a win as long as some turd buys into your fake tweets and spreads it about like peanut covid on toast.

 

[wiyosaya]

But how is it fair that rich people can buy all this crap, influence it, make themselves even richer, making more of a gap between rich and poor. If you aren't in at the ground floor when it goes up or have enough to buy into a win then its useless.
I guess you can make up a win as long as some turd buys into your fake tweets and spreads it about like peanut covid on toast.

As I see it, it is not at all fair. I see that as a failure of the world's economic systems.

My opinion is that the economic systems of the world are totally f'd up. Equality, even in democracies and/or capitalistic societies is a fantasy that has, so far, never lived up to its supposed potential.

 

[3volv3d]

As I see it, it is not at all fair. I see that as a failure of the world's economic systems.

My opinion is that the economic systems of the world are totally f'd up. Equality, even in democracies and/or capitalistic societies is a fantasy that has, so far, never lived up to its supposed potential.

I agree. The fact that people can live like kings based on off shore accounts that hold no money, based on BS makes no sense.
Money does not exist. Debt does. Its all IOUs except for people and companies like Bezos but capitalism makes no sense.
The rich don't pay tax and because of that the poor have to pay more and get little out of it. Health care and infrastructure suffers, because instead of a Better world, they want materialism and more handbags.