Litecoin's Comeback: 'Silver' to Bitcoin's 'Gold' Soars

Litecoin (LTC), which is often referred to as the “silver” to Bitcoin’s “digital gold,” is making a remarkable comeback. This resurgence has been sparked by renewed interest from investors, driven by the recent listing of Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash on EDX Markets, a Wall Street-backed exchange, which was launched on 20 June 2023.

Here is how Binance Academy describes Litecoin:

“Litecoin (LTC) is an altcoin founded in 2011 by former Google engineer Charlie Lee. It aimed to be the lite version of Bitcoin that enables nearly instant and low-cost payments. Litecoin adopted the code and certain features of Bitcoin in its blockchain, but it prioritizes transaction confirmation speed to facilitate a higher transaction per second (TPS) and a shorter block generation time. Due to its similarity with Bitcoin, the Litecoin blockchain has been used as a testing ground for developers to experiment with technologies they want to implement on Bitcoin. For example, Segregated Witness (SegWit) and Lightning Network were run on the Litecoin blockchain before Bitcoin. Litecoin has a total supply of 84 million. Similar to Bitcoin, it is deflationary in nature and halves every 840,000 blocks (approximately every 4 years). The next halving is expected to happen in August 2023. Litecoin can be purchased on various cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance. “

According to a report published by Decrypt on 30 June 2023, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash, which were arguably fading into obscurity, have seen a significant surge in their values. Litecoin, in particular, has reentered the top 10 digital assets by market cap, experiencing a 27.74% increase in the past seven-day period. This surge has boosted Litecoin’s market cap to $8.14 billion.

In fact, crypto analyst Michaël van de Poppe can see the current LTC rally taking the price to $180:

The renewed interest in Litecoin can be attributed to its selection as one of the four cryptocurrencies listed on EDX Markets. The exchange, backed by Citadel Securities and Fidelity, chose Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH), presumably due to their low likelihood of being targeted by regulators for being unregistered securities.

EDX CEO Jamil Nazarali has expressed his comfort with the four assets listed on EDX, stating that they are not securities. The launch of the exchange, backed by traditional finance heavyweights Charles Schwab, Citadel Securities, and Fidelity Digital Assets, has led to an influx of cash into crypto and renewed optimism that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will soon approve one or more Bitcoin ETFs.

As Decrypt points out, another factor contributing to Litecoin’s surge could be its upcoming “halving” event next month. During this event, the supply of coins for mining rewards will be cut in half, creating fewer digital coins. Such events have in the past triggered bullish price action for coins, as seen during the recent Bitcoin halvings.

Featured Image Credit: Photo / illustration by EivindPedersen via Pixabay

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