In a series of events pointing towards the level of volatility of the general crypto industry, Litecoin has seen its value surge and crash significantly within the last 24 hours. This was fueled by a fake Walmart partnership announcement that surfaced online earlier in the day.
The false press statement had claimed that Walmart was partnering with Litecoin, which made many market participants purchase the coin thereby pushing its price higher. However, as the news turned out to be fake, it led to the fall of the digital asset. According to available data, its price rose by over 30 percent within this period before its price crash.
One of the reasons the news was able to spread like wildfire was because the official Twitter account of Litecoin also gave credence to it, with other mainstream media houses like CNBC, Reuters and others also carrying the false story.
Per data from Bybt, the false story played a role in coin’s erratic price action which led to over $25 million worth of liquidations of long and short positions.
Many crypto analyst have highlighted that the press release could be an example of “pump and dump scheme” and have indicated that this could further draw the interest of regulators. The market players also noted how stories of this nature have an effect on the industry in general.
