Cryptos crash after Walmart says it doesn’t plan to start accepting Litecoin

Litecoin is now trading in negative territory after Walmart said a widely circulated press release announcing it would accept crypto payments was fake.

The GlobeNewswire release appeared to quote Doug McMillon, the company's CEO, and mentioned a "major partnership" with Litecoin. It did, however, refer to a non-functioning website, and Walmart later clarified that the release was not from the company.

Litecoin had also tweeted about the partnership at one point, but it was later removed.

Litecoin jumped from $173.77 at 9:13 a.m. ET to $230.72 by 9:45 a.m. ET as a result of the news. By 10:22, it had lost the majority of its gains.

Litecoin wasn't the only cryptocurrency to experience a surge as a result of the news. After the denial, Bitcoin spiked briefly before plummeting. As of 10:45 a.m. ET, it had dropped nearly 8% in the previous 24 hours. Ethereum saw a surge in buyers as well, and is now down 7%.

Polygon (down more than 10%), Bitcoin Cash (down more than 6%), and Cardano are among the other cryptos that have suffered losses (down 11 percent ).

At this time, no one knows who planted the release. Rogue investors frequently try to artificially inflate a company's price in order to sell their shares at a higher price, but this is the first time the technique has been used to boost a cryptocurrency.