Rubbishing the press release about Walmart Inc forming a partnership with litecoin, which for a short time led to a nearly 30 percent surge in the cryptocurrency's price, the US retail giant has said it is fake.
The retailer said it was looking into how such an announcement, which was published by press release distributor GlobeNewswire, was issued on Monday.
"Walmart had no knowledge of the press release issued by GlobeNewswire and there is no truth to it. Walmart has no relationship with litecoin," a company spokesperson was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Litecoin Foundation clarified in its tweet that it has not signed any agreement with Walmart. This was later retweeted by the verified Twitter account of litecoin as well as by Charlie Lee, the creator of the cryptocurrency.
Meanwhile, GlobeNewswire published a notice to "disregard" the press release after Walmart said it was fake.
According to the fake press release, Walmart would allow customers to make payments with litecoin at its online stores. Following the fake press release, the price of litcoin junmped to as much as 27.4 percent.
