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Bitcoin Faces Competition As Rival Litecoin Surges 200% In One Week
In less than a month, litecoin's price has jumped from $85 to $300, posting a mammoth return of over 250%
With bitcoin assuming a streak of making new records, only to break them invariably in a few days, if not hours; its price has gone past the financial appetite of most potential investors. The massive surge in bitcoin prices has drawn interest even from the unlikely quarters of income tax (I-T) department that conducted surveys at the currency exchanges nationwide on Wednesday.
In such a scenario, some other assets have started surging in the realm of digital currencies. One such decentralized currency, besides ethereum, is litecoin. It was released in October 2011 by Charlie Lee, a former Google employee.
The market capitalization of litecoin rose from $1 billion in November 2013 to $4.6 billion in November 2017 when a coin’s price hit $85. In less than a month, its price has now surged to $300, giving a mammoth return of over 250%.
What makes a litecoin appealing is that the price of a litecoin is still affordable for many such investors, at least as of now. Another thing that distinguishes litecoin from a bitcoin is that the litcoin takes relatively less processing speed (2.5 minutes) unlike bitcoin that takes around 10 minutes for one block.
1 Litecoin = 308.351 USD. Litecoin has increased by 2.726 USD in 30 mins. Live price:
Five Things That You Should Know About Litecoin
1. The litecoin is trading around $300 (nearly Rs. 20,000) on Thursday vis-a-vis bitcoin that is trading around $16,300 on bitfinex. Barely two days ago, the litecoin was trading a little lower than $200 on December 12. On December 7, the litecoin was trading for a little less than $100. The jump of 200% in a flat one week is a surge of bitcoin’s proportions.
2. Some new investors who want to seize opportunity in the cryptocurrency rally have started investing money in the litecoin for its relatively cheaper valuation. At the price of one bitcoin, one can buy as much as 80 litecoins as of now.
3. Coinbase, a popular San Francisco-based digital currency exchange, allows trading in litecoin besides bitcoin and ethereum.
4. Chicago-based futures exchange CBOE (Chicago Board Options Exchange) is expected to launch the derivatives of litecoin soon just like bitcoin. As a matter of fact, the massive rise in the price of bitcoin past week was attributed chiefly to the rollout of futures trading of bitcoin last Sunday.
5. One can buy small units of litecoins (just as bitcoins). One thousandth of a litecoin is known as lite and is denoted as 0.001 of litecoin. Similarly, the smallest unit of litecoin, known as photon, denoted as 0.00000001 of a litecoin, is the hundred millionth of a litecoin.
