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Litecoin hoax highlights crypto market vulnerable to scams: 'Walmart has no relationship with litecoin,' says big box retailer - MarketWatch

Litecoin hoax highlights crypto market vulnerable to scams: 'Walmart has no relationship with litecoin,' says big box retailer - MarketWatch

Litecoin hoax highlights crypto market vulnerable to scams: 'Walmart has no relationship with litecoin,' says big box retailer - MarketWatch
Sep 13, 2021 1 min, 16 secs

Fake news appeared to give holders of virtual currencies very real agita on Monday, as a hoax news release sent litecoin briefly soaring before crumbling back down to Earth.

said that it was the subject of a “fake news release” early Monday, with Globe Newswire publishing a report, including a falsified comment from the big box retailer’s CEO Doug McMillon, purporting to have established an arrangement with litecoin.

that would see the retailer accept the crypto as payment.

Skeptics were quick to point out the oddity of the Bentonville, Ark., retailer announcing an arrangement with a crypto that has largely operated in the shadows of larger cryptocurrencies Ether.

GlobeNewsire, meanwhile, in a statement “advised that journalists and other readers should disregard the news release,” but offered no explanation as to how or why the fake news release had been issued.

After briefly surging more than 20%, litecoin was down nearly 3%, changing hands at $179.33, while the broader crypto market was also under pressure

John Wu, crypto expert, former venture capitalist and founder of Ava Labs, said via emailed comments that he would expect more scams like Walmart/litecoin to occur

“Thankfully, this will only set us back weeks or months, not years,” the crypto specialist said

Meanwhile, a survey conducted by the Motley Fool, found that almost 26,500 crypto scams were reported to the government in 2020, totaling losses of $419 million, with this year on pace to exceed those figures

“In 2020, cryptocurrency became the most common payment method used in investment scams and fraud,” according to the Motley Fool survey

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