Litecoin price history: Where is Litecoin heading in 2019?
10:53, 20 March 2019
One of the two cryptocurrency early starters, Litecoin carries the “silver” crown after Bitcoin’s “Gold”. Launched in 2011, Litecoin is in 4th place in the list of the most powerful cryptos by market capitalisation.
The new top altcoin: out of Bitcoin’s shadow
Currently valued around $58, Litecoin has good potential to catch up with its older brother. Let’s find out more about Litecoin’s evolution.
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Litecoin was created by Charlie Lee in 2011. Today, Charlie is the Managing Director of Litecoin Foundation. A former Google employee, Lee also worked the Engineering Director at Coinbase.
Litecoin is the Bitcoin derivative, as it was created as a fork of the core Bitcoin source code. A peer-to-peer open source decentralised cryptocurrency, Litecoin enables instant and commission-free payments around the world.
Litecoin can be mined. Unlike the Bitcoin’s protocol (SHA256), Litecoin uses a scrypt in its proof-of-work algorithm. Due to the scrypt algorithm, Litecoin is considered safer than Bitcoin.
Litecoin algorithm allows the production of 84 million LTC, which is four times bigger than Bitcoin’s total supply (21 million).
Litecoin transaction time is 2.5 minutes, which is four times faster than Bitcoin’s 10 minute transaction time. Therefore, Litecoin enjoys the reputation of a perfect cryptocurrency for online shopping and internet transactions.
Litecoin (LTC) Price History
In terms of Litecoin historical data, the cryptocurrency hit its record high of $375.29 on 19 December 2017. The LTC reached its all-time low of $1.20 on 14 January 2015. According to the latest Litecoin price chart, Litecoin is traded at $58 (as of 19 March 2019).
Litecoin price history makes us think of this crypto as one of the best performing digital currencies. Its trading volume is growing, as more and more people sell and buy Litecoin. Today, Litecoin (LTC) is 4th in terms of trading volume – outplayed only by Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple (XRP).
According to Litecoin historical data, the coin gradually reached its all-time high in 2017 after the halving in 2015. The next Litecoin halving is expected in summer 2019. As a result of this event, the mining reward will split twice from 25 LTC to 12.5 LTC. The miners won’t sell the usual amount of LTC that will significantly reduce the supply – and, eventually, will make the price swing upwards. Since the trends tend to repeat themselves, we may end up with a new LTC all-time high by 2021.
Litecoin price chart
Litecoin price prediction
Sometimes it’s hard to predict what will happen to cryptocurrencies within 24 hours or so. Therefore, it’s even harder when it comes to a long-term perspective.
However, there are some major factors that we should consider, speculating on Litecoin’s performance:
Breaking into mainstream
If the pace of LTC adoption slows, there is little chance that the price will drastically swing upwards.
Infighting
Conflicts and disagreements within the team and management do no good to any project, including Litecoin.
Overall growth of the cryptocurrency market
LTC price history has always depended on the price of BTC. Growing interest from institutional investors could spur a big LTC boost.
Crypto regulation
When it comes to cryptocurrencies, regulators around the world have become extremely active. Though we don’t know the exact impact, there is a chance that the market might slow down across the board.
Coming out from Bitcoin’s shadow, Litecoin focuses more on privacy and attempts to become Bitcoin’s anonymous version. Litecoin’s founder Charlie Lee revealed that the network will adopt Confidential Transactions (CTs) in 2019. If it actually happens, we may expect a significant increase in LTC’s price.
Moreover, recent Litecoin cooperation with BEAM privacy coin (a brand new coin, powered by MimbleWimble protocol) skyrocketed the LTC price by 30%.
Today, people often see Litecoin (LTC) as one of the best long-term cryptocurrency investments. No matter how many and what cryptocurrencies will appear in the near future, the two giants – “Gold” and “Silver” of the crypto world – will not go anywhere.
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