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Fake Press Release Says Walmart Will Accept Crypto, Prices Jump 30%

An unauthorized third party “announced” a new way to pay in-store—but the retail giant said the press release was false.

On Monday morning, a news release claimed Walmart would start taking payments in Litecoin, a digital currency. Prices jumped by up to 30 percent. Only problem? It was fake. The New York Times reports that a few major news outlets, including Reuters and Bloomberg, circulated the hoax-press release just as the stock markets opened, sending the retail giant into a frenzy. Walmart soon released a statement clarifying that the company had not authorized the news release. Any proclamation that Walmart would accept Litecoin as currency was fake. “We are digging into it further to understand what happened,” said Randy Hargrove, a Walmart spokesperson.