An interesting development is taking place in the world of cryptocurrency right now. Litecoin, the silver to bitcoin, is seeing significant price increase all of a sudden. No one knows for sure why this trend is taking place right now, although litecoin has started signaling SegWit a few weeks ago. So far, not much progress has been made in this regard, though.
Litecoin Price Spikes All of a Sudden
It is always interesting to take note of Litecoin’s value these days. After the coin reached an all-time high of over US$50 a few years ago, the value per LTC significantly dwindled. Not too long ago, one LTC had been worth just US$3.7, which is a far cry from the all-time high value. However, it would appear Litecoin’s fortune is slowly changing, although this may only be a temporary trend.
Looking at the current bitcoin price charts, it is evident someone is driving up the value per LTC. Although there is still a very long way to go before any significant value gains take place, the value per LTC has risen to US$7.75 all of a sudden. That is quite a promising gain, although it remains to be seen if this upward momentum can be maintained for a prolonged period of time. Altcoins often see their value getting pumped up for a day or two before eventually crashing down again.
Explaining the reasoning behind these price gains is virtually impossible right now, though. There has been no significant news regarding Litecoin, and no new features have been added by the developers. That being said, Litecoin has been remarkably stable in value ever since hitting the US$4 mark, which does instill some confidence. Not every alternative currency wants to make a name for itself by allowing daytraders to take massive profits every single day.
One possible reason could be how Litecoin started signaling SegWit activation a while ago. Although this solution has not been activated on the network yet, some progress has been made. To be more specific, 21.35% of all network blocks in the past 24 hours have signaled support for Segregated Witness. It is interesting to note that this percentage is also very close to activation on the bitcoin network as well as current SegWit support it as 28.7%. Litecoin is not the only alternative currency to signal SegWit right now, though.
There is a lot of speculation as to why Litecoin’s value has gone up all of a sudden. SegWit activation signaling does not seem to be an influencing factor, although it remains a distinct possibility. One thing bitcoin has going for it is how it remains a very popular altcoin in China, which is where most of the investment capital is coming from right now. Mainly OKCoin and Huobi represent the majority of CNY trading volume for Litecoin right now.
It is possible Chinese investors are pushing the Litecoin price up as a way to oppose SegWit activation in bitcoin. A lot of Chinese cryptocurrency enthusiasts are not in favor of SegWit, and pushing hard to make Litecoin valuable again is one way to achieve that goal. After all, it seems unlikely Litecoin will activate SegWit anytime soon, hence it could serve as a hedge against “Bitcoin Core dominance”. For now, that is merely speculation, though.
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