InvestorPlace Assistant Information Author Brenden Rearick questioned in early Might if Litecoin (CCC:LTC-USD) would preserve shifting greater after buying and selling volumes had been greater than 140% greater than typical.
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My colleague supplied LTC price predictions that ranged from $500 to $762 by the tip of 2021. For a time, it seemed as if these guesstimates can be fairly darn correct as LTC shot as much as an all-time excessive of $412.96 on Might 10.
After which the wheels fell off because the second half of the month started.
Having dropped 35% within the span of 4 hours on Wednesday, it has misplaced round 50% of its worth in 10 days of buying and selling. To get again to its all-time excessive, Litecoin should double.
Given the pattern proper now seems to be down, not up, I’m unsure inexperienced cryptocurrency traders ought to be wherever close to this altcoin. Until, in fact, you really plan to make use of LTC as foreign money and never an funding.
Venmo Accepts Litecoin
InvestorPlace contributor Mark Hake lately known as Litecoin an altcoin that ought to survive the crypto bubble bursting. My colleague identified that PayPal’s (NASDAQ:PYPL) Venmo peer-to-peer cash switch service had begun to just accept Litecoin, Ethereum (CCC:ETH-USD), Bitcoin (CCC:BTC-USD) and Bitcoin Money (CCC:BCH-USD). PayPal has additionally begun permitting shoppers to make use of cryptocurrency together with Litecoin within the checkout course of for its 29 million merchants.
“That is the primary time you may seamlessly use cryptocurrencies in the identical means as a bank card or a debit card inside your PayPal pockets,” PayPal CEO Dan Schulman advised Reuters in late March earlier than launching the service.
Schulman believes that cryptocurrencies will develop into a funding supply quite than simply an asset class or an funding. If that’s the case, an altcoin like Litecoin would profit from such a transition.
I’ve stated in previous articles writing about cryptocurrencies that utility is a essential part of any that I might suggest. Cardano (CCC:ADA-USD) definitely fits that bill.
As for Litecoin, I haven’t studied it shut sufficient to know what utility it has past being an alternate foreign money for peer-to-peer transactions, however I’ll get there.
Is Litecoin Rudderless?
Having by no means written about Litecoin earlier than, I had no concept that its creator, Charlie Lee, sold all of his Litecoin in 2017 to keep away from a potential battle of curiosity upon returning to run the Litecoin Basis full time.
Some folks would possibly view this as an absence of dedication or perception within the cryptocurrency. Nevertheless, I typically keep away from proudly owning shares as a rule to get rid of any conflicts over firms I’m writing about.
However, as Charlie Lee said in 2017, he would proceed to put his heart and soul into the Litecoin Basis.
“Don’t fear. I’m not quitting Litecoin. I’ll nonetheless spend all my time engaged on Litecoin,” Lee said in December 2017.
“When Litecoin succeeds, I’ll nonetheless be rewarded in plenty of alternative ways, simply indirectly by way of possession of cash. I now consider that is one of the best ways for me to proceed to supervise Litecoin’s development.”
Just lately, Charlie Lee joined the BTCS (OTCMKTS:BTCS) board, a digital asset and blockchain know-how firm that’s created a staking-as-a-service platform to validate blockchain transactions. It’s additionally growing a digital asset knowledge analytics platform so patrons of a number of cryptocurrencies can consolidate their trades onto one platform.
As decentralized finance and open banking develop, crypto management should get out and work with firms like BTCS to unravel real-world issues.
If BTCS inventory has a 20-day averaging closing price of $2.515 on April 1, 2022, Lee will see 175,000 five-year choices vest with an train worth of $1.03. That’s probably value at the very least $260,000. If it hits the Nasdaq, he will get $50,000 in annual pay, plus 75,000 restricted inventory items, along with the 175,000 choices.
Evidently, Litecoin proponents needn’t fear about Lee’s monetary state of affairs, which suggests he’s not going wherever quickly.
The Backside Line
Litecoin supporters convey up three issues when selling LTC.
First, it has a tough cap of 84 million LTC, 4 instances the availability of Bitcoin. Secondly, the time it takes to create a brand new block is 2.5 minutes, one-quarter the time of Bitcoin, making it a lot better for sending and receiving. Lastly, it has very low charges.
So long as LTC trades under $1,000, it stays a helpful altcoin for endeavor transactions. As for utility past low-cost charges and sooner transactions, I don’t see it.
Though most cryptocurrencies are in a little bit of a funk proper now, they’ll quickly go on one other run greater. Shopping for on 50% drawdowns over the following few years ought to be a wise plan.
The query you want to reply is whether or not Litecoin is the horse it is best to again over the lengthy haul.
On the date of publication, Will Ashworth didn’t have (both instantly or not directly) any positions within the securities talked about on this article. The opinions expressed on this article are these of the author, topic to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
Will Ashworth has written about investments full-time since 2008. Publications the place he’s appeared embrace InvestorPlace, The Motley Idiot Canada, Investopedia, Kiplinger, and several other others in each the U.S. and Canada. He significantly enjoys creating mannequin portfolios that stand the check of time. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. On the time of this writing Will Ashworth didn’t maintain a place in any of the aforementioned securities.
