Litecoin Soldiers Through, Trouble Might Be Ahead
|It has been a couple of weeks from the Bitcoin’s three month low. Bitcoin’s early year struggles have resulted in a major downtrend in altcoins, too. Since the February 4th’s Bitcoin low, it has been a steady recovery while many altcoins have not performed as well. Bitcoin dominance in the market, according to coinmarketcap.com, rose from 33.5 to a high of 39.5.
Just before the Bitcoin low on 4th of February, Bitcoin’s market cap was $153 billion and today it is $173 billion, resulting in a 13.50% rise. During the same time, the combined market cap of the nine biggest altcoins has stayed put (-0.2%). Ethereum’s market cap has fallen 7.23% while Ripple has gained 10.74%. Litecoin has performed much better than other top dogs in the market.
| Crypto | Market Cap 4/2/2018 | Market Cap 23/2/2018 | Change |
| Bitcoin | $153 074 990 834 | $173 744 232 742 | 13,50 % |
| Ethereum | $92 021 328 614 | $85 365 110 151 | -7,23 % |
| Ripple | $35 870 792 504 | $39 722 664 715 | 10,74 % |
| Bitcoin Cash | $21 282 653 355 | $21 602 853 689 | 1,50 % |
| Litecoin | $8 995 127 754 | $11 641 005 568 | 29,41 % |
| Cardano | $11 618 687 017 | $8 881 343 940 | -23,56 % |
| NEO | $7 796 958 656 | $7 901 920 000 | 1,35 % |
| Stellar | $8 091 105 014 | $7 003 124 620 | -13,45 % |
| EOS | $6 342 101 272 | $5 959 593 777 | -6,03 % |
| Dash | $4 950 361 467 | $5 047 665 998 | 1,97 % |
On the first glance, Litecoin's run has been a bit surprising. Litecoin founder Charlie Lee sold all his Litecoins back on 20th of December, starting a downtrend for Litecoin. Struggling Bitcoin continued Litecoin's slide, but recently the trend has favored Litecoin.
Litecoin Adoption on the Rise
As the transaction costs and times of Bitcoin have fallen, the main advantage of Litecoin over Bitcoin is on the verge of eroding. Despite Bitcoin becoming more and more useful by the day, it seems clear that Litecoin is currently the number one when it comes to easy, quick and cheap money transfers.
Our sources from the guys at Gamble.io underline that Litecoin is the one currency beating Bitcoin in cryptocurrency gambling. The amount of Litecoin transactions have been on the rise while they’ve only a slight raise in Bitcoin gambling.
Also, casinos have begun to introduce more and more cryptocurrencies as a preferred payment method. Litecoin has led the charge.
Tide May Turn Soon
However, Litecoin's future doesn't look all that warm and fuzzy. Bitcoin's Lightning Network has been implemented fully and it might make Bitcoin once again the go-to-coin when transferring money.
This is a reason why you should stay wary of going long with Litecoin. Sure, it may come back to $300+ level if the crypto market continues to rebound like it is expected to, but the future of LTC is very blurry from an investor point of view. They have to come up with new ways to one-up Bitcoin, and that's not an easy task for anyone. We will see if there is a place for Litecoin in broad commercial use.
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