Litecoin Surges on Debunked Walmart News

Editor's note: A Monday morning press release that bore Walmart's logo and corporate headquarters turned out to be fake, Walmart announced. Decrypt was among a number of media outlets that published the news. Our story was quickly amended.

A press release from what appeared to be Walmart announced that the giant retailer would be accepting Litecoin for payment. Coverage of the news drove Litecoin's price 34.6%, until Walmart announced that the press release was fake.

The apparent pump and dump scheme began last month after the email domain included with the press release was registered.

A spokesperson from Walmart told CNBC that the press release was "not authentic." The Litecoin Foundation also fell for the fake news and retweeted the bogus announcement.

The price of the currency jumped from $174 to $235, before sinking back to around $179.