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The cryptocurrency markets are rarely dull. Yesterday was a prime example of an intriguing day after news emerged that the e-commerce giant Walmart has decided to enable its customers to make payments with Litecoin (LTC).
Naturally, the price of the digital asset exploded by double-digits in minutes. In fact, the whole market did as bitcoin spiked $2,000.
It all seemed quite well until, minutes later, a Walmart representative denied the report, saying it was fake news. The volatile nature of the cryptocurrency space came to play again, with LTC and the rest of the tokens dumping even more vigorously.
The ever-creative community was quick to react with some humorous and compelling memes and tweets. Here are some of them.
Burj Khalifa and Litecoin
The aforementioned price developments took Litecoin from a low of $173 to a daily high of $238 (on Bitstamp). This 37% surge happened in less than 15 minutes. Shortly after, LTC dumped back down to around $175 again – in minutes.
Some traders tried to take advantage of the news, which would have been quite significant for Litecoin if it was real, of course, and opened long positions. Yet, they were caught in the wrong place, resulting in millions of dollars in liquidations in LTC trading alone, according to Bybt.
Consequently, some popular digital asset commentators took it to Twitter to ask what would happen to those who “bought the news” in a somewhat ironic way:
Can Walmart at least offer jobs to those who bought the news?
— Cred (@CryptoCred) September 13, 2021
Another popular cryptocurrency trader, going by the Twitter handle Emperor, showed a picture of how a large group of people has gathered in a store asking for refunds after getting rekt.
Others took a different approach by comparing the sharp price increase and decrease with the tallest building in the world today – Burj Khalifa (828 meters).
While on the topic of charts, another one emerged on social media that actually saw the price candles as “L” – the first letter of Litecoin.
The Problem With Unverified Reports
On a more serious note, yesterday’s publications from some of the most well-known and respected websites outlined a growing problem – misinformation. GlobeNewswire – a press release distribution service founded more than two decades ago – ran the story first.
It was quickly picked up by media giants like Reuters and CNBC, even though there was no confirmation yet. In fact, CNBC even admitted that they are uncertain of the story’s authenticity, as it had this in the report (before it was edited out):
“It was not immediately clear if the news release was actually authentic.”
GlobeNewswire later blamed the situation on a “fraudulent user account,” which apparently issued the illegitimate press release. Despite claiming that this has never happened before and that the team has now placed “enhanced authentication steps to prevent this isolated incident from occurring in the future,” the crypto community didn’t pass by GlobeNewswire’s role.
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