The price of Litecoin (LTC) rose to more than $237 earlier on Monday post-obit erroneous reports from major news outlets that The states retailer Walmart would be introducing a payment option for the cryptocurrency on all of its e-commerce websites.

CNBC, Reuters, Decrypt and others reported on Monday that Walmart planned to accept a "Pay with Litecoin Selection" for its retail websites starting on Oct. i as part of a partnership with the Litecoin Foundation, the arrangement financing and promoting adoption of the Litecoin ecosystem. The reports seemed to spawn from a single press release through distribution service GlobeNewsWire. The release claimed that Walmart chose to prefer LTC for payments based on its "cheaper and faster" features and the token having "no central authorization."

However, according to CNBC, a Walmart spokesperson confirmed the press release was "non authentic" roughly an 60 minutes after the initial report broke. The Litecoin Foundation's manager of marketing, Jay Milla, as well told Cointelegraph the proclamation did not come up from the foundation.

"The Litecoin Foundation has yet to enter into a partnership with Walmart," said Milla.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro shows that LTC'south cost surged more than 35% immediately post-obit the spread of the fake report — from $175 to a monthly high of more than than $237 — before sharply falling. At time of publication, the price of Litecoin is $180.

Related: LTC price hits 13-month high confronting Bitcoin

With a market capitalization of more than $406 billion, Walmart has previously hinted it would be looking into cryptocurrencies. In Baronial, the company posted a job listing for an expert who could develop a digital currency strategy and product roadmap, but did not specifically mention information technology would be introducing a path for crypto payments. In addition, Walmart has used blockchain technology for supply chain management, client marketplaces and smart appliances.

Cointelegraph reached out to Walmart but did not receive a response past fourth dimension of publication.