Litecoin has been in the midst of recent controversy lately. There were reports on Monday that retail giant Walmart has partnered with Litecoin to start accepting payments in the cryptocurrency. The official-looking press release of both GlobeNewswire and Reuters was shared by major media outlets. Much more important than these, the same news was shared by Litecoin’s official Twitter account.
Less than an hour after the news broke, Walmart confirmed that there is no partnership with the Litecoin platform. The community has finally come to a conclusion that the release of the press releases allowed the price of Litecoin to soar by up to 35% in a single hour. pump and dump He began speculating that there was a plan (the fraudulent practice of encouraging investors to buy a coin to artificially inflate the price and then sell their own coins when the price is high). Reuters also removed the press release and instead issued a correction confirming that the partnership news was false.
Litecoin creator Charlie Lee joined Bloomberg News to explain about fake news and Litecoin’s role in it. Lee explained that the press release did not come from the Litecoin Foundation and that the fake news was not carried out by anyone associated with the foundation. The founder denied that his foundation had anything to do with the announcement of the news and stated that he would work to uncover those responsible. Lee, “Almost anyone who wants the price to go up can publish a fake news like this.” made a statement.
Lee explained that the foundation takes great care not to spread fake news because it reflects badly on the industry. However, explaining that they are trying not to tweet fake news, the LTC founder admitted that they failed this time:
“We really screwed up this time and we will try harder not to do that”
Litecoin Foundation Does Not Support Pump and Dump
Litecoin is a decentralized cryptocurrency; This means that anyone can post fake news to raise the price, but this price increase will not benefit the Litecoin Foundation.
The founder called for stricter security review protocols and fact-checking policies for journalism. Lee also stated that the media outlets that published the press release are holding talks with the parties presenting the statement to identify the source of the fake news.
Finally, the Litecoin Foundation said it will speed up and strengthen the review process to ensure news is confirmed before it is tweeted. The founder stated that he realized the power of Twitter handles and that they would check the accuracy of the news before publishing.
Litecoin Founder Lee also reiterated that he has never partnered with Walmart, representing the foundation:
“We have no information on where this idea or press release came from. The Litecoin Foundation has not entered into any partnerships with Walmart.”