Partnered With:

Litecoin founder: Only 20 LTCS, no incentive to participate in fake news schemes

Read this article in 6 Minutes

Walmart has launched an investigation into yesterday's false news that "Walmart announced support for litecoin payments".

Walmart Inc. (WMT) has launched an investigation into a false story that leaked out of the market yesterday evening, saying it supports litecoin payments. Litecoin briefly jumped more than 30% on the news.

根据 9 月 14 日 GlobeNewswire 于纽约上午 9:30（北京时间晚间 9:30）发布的消息，沃尔玛将开始允许其客户使用莱特币支付。该声明也同样被路透社、CNBC 和彭博新闻报道，也推动莱特币上涨了 33%，短时突破 230 美元。不过随后不到一个小时里，沃尔玛就迅速否认了这一声明，导致莱特币价格急跌瞬间回落至 178 美元附近。莱特币官方推特也发文称这一声明是虚假的。

据经营 GlobeNewswire 的 Intrado 的一份电子邮件声明称，GlobeNewswire 正在与当局合作进行调查，「包括调查与此事相关的任何犯罪活动」。

Intrado 说:「这种情况以前从未发生过，我们已经采取了加强的认证步骤，以防止这种单独的事件在未来再次发生。」由 Apollo 全球管理公司 (Apollo Global Management) 控制的 Intrado 网站显示，该公司每年会发布 20 万份新闻稿。

Confusingly, however, litecoin's Verified Twitter account posted an online post about the fake claim after it appeared, adding credibility to the story. Charlie Lee, Litecoin's founder and managing director of the Litecoin Foundation, said the tweet was removed after it was declared untrue.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Mr. Lee said,With only about 20 litecoins, he has no incentive to participate in such schemes to increase the value of the digital currency."This is really bad and we really need to look into it," Lee said, adding that his foundation's tweet "really screwed up." He has limited investigative tools and says GlobeNewswire should investigate the incident.

当然，不良信息影响价格的市场并非只有加密货币。美国证券交易委员会（SEC）近年来一直在追查发布虚假新闻的个人。不过美国证券交易委员会拒绝对此发表评论。

亚利桑那州立大学 (Arizona State University) 商业新闻学教授 Jeffrey Timmermans 表示:「即使是像股市这样受到高度监管的市场也可能被这样操纵。」「加密市场非常不稳定，往往会有大量散户投资者参与，而这些人也可能会根据传言和猜测参与进来。」

目前还不清楚这一事件是否会阻止大公司今后与加密货币合作。近年来，比特币的使用急剧增加，萨尔瓦多甚至开始采用比特币作为法定货币，但人们对比特币是否容易受到干预和炒作的质疑，加剧了市场对于加密货币的怀疑。

但是可以预见的是，各家公司正在为与数字货币的进一步的整合做准备。今年早些时候，沃尔玛在公司网站上发布了一则招聘广告，负责制定「数字货币战略和产品路线图」，同时确定「与加密货币相关的投资和合作伙伴关系」。

"To the extent that this is bad for cryptocurrencies, it can happen in the regular stock market," litecoin's Lee said. "This is more likely to happen in the regular stock market than in cryptocurrencies. But I've seen it happen a few times in cryptocurrencies."