The LTC/EUR pair consists of Litecoin, a cryptocurrency, and the Euro, the official currency of the European Union. In this pair LTC is the base currency, and EUR is the counter currency. So the LTC/EUR rate tells you how many euros it takes to buy one Litecoin.
Litecoin is a peer-to-peer internet currency that enables instant payments to anyone around the world. As with other cryptocurrencies, it isn’t issued by a central authority. Created as an alternative to Bitcoin, Litecoinfirst appeared in 2011. By November 2013, Litecoin had achieved a market capitalisation of $1 billion, and in 2017 Litecoin ranked fifth in the list of the most popular cryptocurrencies. The current circulation is over 55 million coins. The Litecoin Network aims to process a block every 2.5 minutes, compared to every 10 minutes with Bitcoin. According to the developers, this enables Litecoin to have speedier transaction confirmation than its more famous rival.
Charlie Lee, an ex-Google employee, founded Litecoin. But in December 2017 he sold off all of his holdings in the cryptocurrency. Lee said he had been accused of commenting on the price of the digital currency on social media for “personal benefit”. Denying this, he explained: “I have always refrained from buying/selling LTC before or after my major tweets, but this is something only I know.” Lee said he was selling off his holdings to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interests.
Between the beginning of March and the end of November 2017 the Litecoin Euro rate rose sharply from 3.70 to 80.20. It then saw a massive spike to over EUR 250 in early December 2017, before falling almost equally dramatically. One factor behind the fall was the news that Litecoin’s merchant payment processing system LitePay would be closing. There had been high hopes for LitePay as a merchant tool, and its failure hit Litecoin’s price hard. As of 8 April 2018, the Litecoin Euro rate stood at 94.43. To see how it’s doing right now, check our LTC/EUR chart at Capital.com. We’ll keep you up to date and in the picture.
Cryptocurrencies have soared in popularity in the last few years to the point where they’ve become part of the global economic landscape. But they are now coming under pressure amid increasing regulatory interventions. In September 2017, China ordered the closure of all locally based cryptocurrency exchanges. And in April 2018, officials at the Reserve Bank of India announced that the country’s banks would be prohibited from "dealing with or providing services to any individuals or business entities dealing with or settling virtual currencies".
There has also been a clampdown on cryptocurrency advertising. In January 2018, Facebook announced that it was banning adverts that are "frequently associated with misleading or deceptive practices" including initial coin offerings and cryptocurrencies. Other platforms made similar moves.Google announced a cryptocurrency crackdown with effect from June 2018 across all of its platforms; Snap, Twitter and MailChimp followed suit; and Reddit has prohibited cryptocurrency ads since 2016.
Interventions like this and general uncertainty over the regulatory environment have had an impact on the value of most cryptocurrencies. The entire cryptocurrency market lost around half its market capitalisation between January 1 and March 31, 2018. This high level of volatility certainly presents risks to the investor – but it’s precisely these sharp swings in cryptocurrencies that have made them so attractive to many people.
South Africa’s currency, the Rand, bounced strongly against the yen earlier this year after Cyril Ramaphosa replaced Jacob Zuma as president. However, the euphoria has since faded, although some expect it to return if the President’s party wins convincingly the elections in May.
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