Litecoin has recorded massive price movement in the past hour. The coin started to rally after Reuters had reported that retail giant Walmart would begin accepting the cryptocurrency as payment for purchases. The news broke on Monday with a press release that stated Walmart had partnered with Litecoin to allows customers to make payments with LTC.
The news triggered a price surge that saw the price of Litecoin grow 30% in a single hour, breaking a three-month high of $237. Before the news broke, Litecoin has been trading in the mid-$170s at $175. News of the Walmart partnership over $60 in one hour to put it this current high. With a customer base that Walmart possesses, it is no surprise that the news triggered such a reaction from the market.
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Fake Press Release?
The press release from Reuters has been shared widely as the news broke throughout the industry. Major crypto media outlets had reported on the news, with the official Twitter account of Litecoin also tweeting a link to the move. The press release from Reuters had featured a quote, seemingly from Walmart’s CEO Doug McMillon, which read; “Starting October 1st, all eCommerce stores will have implemented a ‘Pay with Litecoin Option’.
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In a move that has so far triggered a cascade of deleted tweets and stories, the news of the Litecoin-Walmart partnership has now been debunked. Apparently, the legit-looking press release from Reuters had been a fake press release. The sources which reported on this news have since backtracked. Litecoin’s official Twitter handle deleted the link to the news report.
Community members have now moved forward to call this a cheap pump and dump scheme. The coin has dumped with confirmations of the Walmart partnership being fake, with the price returning back to previous levels before the 30% price surge.
Litecoin Price Movements
Litecoin has so far lost all of its gained value from the pump caused by the Walmart news. As of the time of writing, the coin had lost over $60 in a downwards correction, landing back in the mid-$170s that it was trading at before the news broke. The charts show a sharp upward and downward movement in the space of one hour.
LTC price pumps and dumps with Walmart news | Source: LTCUSD on TradingView.com
For a brief moment, the digital asset looked ready to test the $140 resistance point which it had not been able to break since peaking in May. The hour following the 30% price surge has seen Litecoin struggling to hold on to some of the momenta it had gained with the move. Currently trading at around $180, the digital asset is none the worse for wear following the debacle.
Regardless of whether the news is fake or not, the asset has benefitted from the increased interest in it. Social media platforms like Twitter and Reddit are abuzz with the [fake] news of the integration with Walmart. The current publicity will no doubt have some positive effect on the price of the asset.
Featured image from CMC Markets, chart from TradingView.com
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