时间:2025-04-03 10:00:52 来源:网络整理编辑:熱點
What a way to kick off your week if you're a cryptocurrency supporter.Reports quickly spread on Mond
What a way to kick off your week if you're a cryptocurrency supporter.
Reports quickly spread on Monday morning claiming that Walmart, one of the biggest retailers in the world, was going to start accepting Litecoin, a cryptocurrency, as payment.
The price of Litecoin quickly spiked. Crypto fans were overjoyed. Mainstream media outlets like CNBC and Reuters shared the news. Even the @Litecoin Twitter account tweeted it out.
The price of Litecoin spiked from around $170 before the press release was distributed to more than $230 in a matter of minutes.
Everything seemedlegit...except it wasn't.
Walmart will notbe accepting Litecoin. The report was fake.
So, what happened?
On the morning of Sept. 13, a press releasewas distributed online via GlobeNewswire, a legitimate press release distribution service with the headline "Walmart Announces Major Partnership With Litecoin (LTC)."
The press release claimed Walmart was announcing a partnership with the cryptocurrency Litecoin and would start accepting the alternative digital currency as payment. The release included quotes attributed to Walmart CEO Doug McMillon and Litecoin creator Charlie Lee.
With the press release making the rounds, cryptocurrency blogs started sharing news of the Walmart and Litecoin partnership. Soon mainstream financial news outlets such as CNBCcovered the release, with headlines like "Walmart to accept payments with cryptocurrencies using Litecoin." Reutershit the news too, its piece consisting entirely of just a few sentences.
With many cryptocurrency advocates excited over the news, the story officially went viral.
Some crypto critics, such as the user behind the popular Twitter account @CryptoWhale, saw red flags with the press release. But, the cryptocurrency community saw the mainstream media coverage of the news as confirmation. When the verified @Litecoin Twitter account sharedthe announcement on its feed, that solidified the news.
Tweet may have been deleted
Then, just as quickly as the news spread, it all came falling apart. As the story made waves, Walmart reached out to CNBC to deny the reports, claiming the press release was a fake.
But before the denial, things seemed fishy.
While Litecoin is not an obscure cryptocurrency, a partnership with Walmart would be strange. Especially after a year where Bitcoin and even meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin captivated headline news with its popularity. Walmart could partner with any major cryptocurrency, going with Litecoin didn't make sense.
Another red flags in the press was an email attributed to William White, Walmart's chief marketing officer, "[email protected]."
The Walmart contact listed on the press release was to the domain name "walmart-corp.com." Many corporations use similarly styled domains for its business or investor relations website. Walmart does not use this domain, however. In fact, it appears that they don't even own it.
The walmart-corp.com domain was registeredon Aug. 17, just 27 days ago. The domain obscures its registrant's contact info with whois privacy provided by domain registrar Namecheap. The domain does not resolve to any website.
Tweet may have been deleted
Why would the @Litecoin Twitter account tweetthis news out if they actually weren't involved in a partnership with Walmart? Well, that's because the @Litecoin Twitter account isn't run by Litecoin developers or anyone who works with the cryptocurrency in any official capacity. It's an account run by Litecoin supporters.
The majority of media outlets that originally published the news based on the newswire alert have since retracted its stories, including Reuters and CNBC.
The price of Litecoin has since fallen to around $180 at the time this story was published.
With the Walmart story debunked, that still leaves the questions: How did this happen and why?
Online speculation is leaning heavy towards a pump and dump scheme. Anyone holding Litecoin who sold during that short window before the news was retracted, where Litecoin spiked more than $60 per coin, stood to make a large sum of money rather quickly. It's unclear if that was the motive, however.
Mashable has reached out to Walmart as well as Intrado, the digital media company that runs the press release distribution service GlobeNewswire, for more information. We will update this story when we hear back.
UPDATE: Sept. 13, 2021, 5:00 p.m. EDT Intrado, the parent company of press distribution service GlobeNewswire, has provided a statement to Mashable signaling that they are taking the situation very seriously as the fake release could very well have been used to sway the crypto market.
"When GlobeNewswire became aware this morning that a fraudulent user account was used to issue an illegitimate press release, we promptly withdrew the press release and issued a Notice to Disregard," said Dave Pleiss, Intrado VP of Investor and Public Relations, in a statement provided to Mashable.
"This has never happened before and we have already put in place enhanced authentication steps to prevent this isolated incident from occurring in the future. We will work with the appropriate authorities to request – and facilitate – a full investigation, including into any criminal activity associated with this matter."
UPDATE: Sept. 13, 2021, 12:45 p.m. EDT The Litecoin Foundation, a non-profit headed by Litecoin founder Lee, has released a statementon Twitter:
"The Litecoin Foundation has not entered into a partnership with Walmart."
TopicsCryptocurrency
This German startup wants to be your bank (without being a bank)2025-04-03 09:58
前富力主帥執教塞爾維亞起步順利 3戰2勝1平符合美麗足球風格2025-04-03 09:46
FIFA病毒襲來:拜仁痛失萊萬聚勒 巴黎兩主力受傷2025-04-03 09:29
FIFA病毒襲來:拜仁痛失萊萬聚勒 巴黎兩主力受傷2025-04-03 09:28
17 questions you can answer if you're a good communicator2025-04-03 08:50
瘋狂進球夜 !世預賽兩戰轟15球 比利時荷蘭踢瘋了2025-04-03 08:35
伊布豪言 :我定能摧毀金剛 向巴頓一樣越來越年輕2025-04-03 08:15
中超賽程周四有望出爐 分組可能微調滬粵球隊全在主場2025-04-03 08:10
'The Flying Bum' aircraft crashes during second test flight2025-04-03 07:56
又見大聖!貝爾19次首發造14球 率隊終結不勝魔咒2025-04-03 07:29
Snapchat is about to explode in popularity, report says2025-04-03 09:59
江蘇隊前主帥德拉甘震驚球隊解散 不停問:球迷怎麽辦?2025-04-03 09:36
本澤馬錄像帶案10月受審 或因敲詐入獄五年仍嘴硬2025-04-03 09:30
中超16強動態:津門虎複活 海港熱身賽狂虐泰山2025-04-03 08:58
Pokémon Go is so big that it has its own VR porn parody now2025-04-03 08:27
德國前瞻 :後防漸入佳境 日爾曼戰車力爭三連零封2025-04-03 08:20
葡媒質疑C羅霸占任意球主罰權 3年進3球遠不如B費2025-04-03 07:54
老將發威!38歲潘德夫首開紀錄 助球隊爆冷擊敗德國2025-04-03 07:52
Mom discovers security cameras hacked, kids' bedroom livestreamed2025-04-03 07:45
2023女足世界杯比賽城市揭曉 澳大利亞新西蘭共同主辦2025-04-03 07:25