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.

Litecoin
LTC
-13.15%$72.04
24H7D1M1YMAX
Created with Highcharts 10.3.3Apr 112:00PMApr 212:00PMApr 312:00PMApr 412:00PMApr 512:00PMApr 612:00PMApr 712:00PM$60$65$70$75$80$85$90
Price data by
LTC price

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

Daily Debrief Newsletter

Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.