American retail giant Walmart has refuted claims of partnership with Litecoin. Earlier on Monday, reports had emerged claiming that a supposed Litecoin partnership would see Walmart begin to accept payments in the cryptocurrency across its stores in up to 24 countries including South Africa.
According to the now-debunked claims, a press release announcing the partnership had been signed by the CEO of the retail giant, Doug McMillon and Litecoin founder, Charlie Lee, giving it a toga of authenticity. An official Twitter account belonging to Litecoin is also said to have tweeted about the press release. Immediately the reports emerged, several media outlets had publicized it thinking it to be true, with popular media outfit Reuters attaching a link to an update it issued in respect of the unfounded claims on Twitter.
Several crypto influencers would later challenge the veracity of the press release and noted it was fake. One of the influencers discovered that the web address (WALMART-CORP.com) attached to the release was bogus as it did not redirect to Walmart’s official website. The influencer also said the address was a month old, indicating that it was created to spread the rumor.
Spokesman to Walmart, Randy Hargrove debunked the rumors, assuring that the press release allegedly issued by Walmart was fake. Hargrove also noted that the retail company has reached out to GlobeNewswire that initially featured the partnership deal along with the press update in one of its Monday’s reports. Later that day, the media outlet forwarded a rejoinder, sequel to taking down the report, wherein it acknowledged the mistake.
Meanwhile, Litecoin had capitalized on the likely pump and dump scheme to register a 20% increase in its price within the first half of the day. At the time, the cryptocurrency was trading at $197. Following the widespread disclaimer released by media houses, Litecoin lost its gains and as of press time was trading at $177.
