Damage Control: Litecoin Creator Charlie Lee On Fake Walmart News, “We Really Screwed Up”

Litecoin has recently been in the middle of recent controversy. News broke out on Monday that retail giant Walmart had partnered with Litecoin to start accepting payments in the cryptocurrency. The official-looking press release from both GlobeNewswire and Reuters was shared by major media outlets. And more importantly, was shared by the official Twitter account for Litecoin.

Less than an hour after the news broke, it was confirmed that there had been no partnership. In the end, it looked to be a pump and dump scheme. Affecting the price of Litecoin, which had grown up to 35% in a single hour after the press releases went up. Reuters has since pulled down their press release and replaced it with a retraction confirming that news of the partnership had been fake.

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Charlie Lee, the creator of Litecoin, was on Bloomberg News to talk about the hoax and Litecoin’s involvement in it. Lee clarified that the press release did not originate from the Litecoin Foundation. Neither was the hoax perpetrated by anyone associated with the foundation. The founder denied that his foundation had anything to do with the release and would work towards exposing the parties behind it. “Pretty much anyone, if they want the price to pump, they can release this fake news,” Lee added.

Lee explained that the foundation is very careful about not putting out fake news as it reflects badly on the industry. But admitted that while they try to not tweet out fake news, “This time, we really screwed up and we will try harder to not do that.”

LTC price corrected back down to previous levels before pump | Source: LTCUSD on TradingView.com

Litecoin Foundation Has No Incentive To Pump And Dump

Litecoin is a decentralized cryptocurrency, which means that anyone could post out fake news in a bid to pump the price. And the Litecoin Foundation would have no benefit from operating a pump and dump scheme.

The founder called for stricter vetting protocols and fact-checking policies for journalism would be the best course of action to combat issues like this. Lee also mentioned that the media outlets which published the press release were in talks with the parties who submitted it. In an effort to track down where the [fake] news originated from.

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On their end, the Litecoin Foundation is upping its vetting process to make sure news is confirmed before they tweet it. The founder explained he understand how much power their Twitter handle carries. And as such, they will make sure to fact-check news before they post it.

The foundation released a statement stating that they never entered into a partnership with Walmart. “We have no information as to where this idea or the release to the press originated. The Litecoin Foundation has not entered into a partnership with Walmart of any kind,” the statement read.

Featured image from Kryptomoney, chart from TradingView.com