For a moment we seemed to be taking off. The prices turned green and Litecoin (LTC) took the lead. Litecoin was the subject of what appeared to be big news. Walmart would soon accept the altcoin at all its branches. Euphoria engulfed the market, with the LTC price shooting up 40%. But it soon became clear that something strange was going on here.
It seemed so believable. A press release went out via an email address that appeared to be from Walmart. But several people did not trust the business and found out within minutes that the domain name was only registered a month ago.
https://t.co/Tn2N7HdfhF (the email domain used in the press release) was registered last month and doesn’t go to any official website. pic.twitter.com/ADNGpmOCFD
— Steven (@Dogetoshi) September 13, 2021
Adding power to this news was the fact that even media outlets like Reuters and CNBC immediately took the news as true, with Reuters article the world with the headline: “Walmart is going to accept litecoin payments.” Also the Twitter account of the Litecoin Foundation itself looked no further than its nose and took the news for granted. A tweet went out into the world announcing the big news.
The foundation, the official foundation behind the altcoin, withdrew the crap within minutes and deleted the tweet again. The Reuters article is still online an hour after publication without any corrections. The American CNBC has since amended its article. A spokesperson for the giant Walmart has confirmed that the news is fake.
Because the news initially appeared to be real, the value of the total crypto market increased by $100 billion in a matter of minutes. Once it became clear that it was fake news, the market saw $100 billion disappear just as quickly. The effect on litecoin was obviously even greater. LTC rose 40% but lost this appreciation just as quickly.
This appears to be a misinformation campaign to pump up and dump the market, and probably more specifically litecoin. Those who are behind this will have managed to make a nice profit anyway. But the downside is that a lot of people have probably lost money as well.