With the digital spotlight being focused on Bitcoin in recent weeks, its smaller sibling Litecoin has fallen by the wayside. Trading has been flat and it has failed to gain traction in either direction, currently sitting around $55 where it has been languishing for the past fortnight.
The world’s fifth largest cryptocurrency may be in store for a well-needed lift after a major South Korean exchange enabled direct LTC trading. Since the doors in China were unceremoniously slammed shut on crypto trading last month South Korea has taken up the lion’s share of that trade, surpassing China to become the third largest Bitcoin market.
South Korea’s second-largest exchange, Coinone, recently added Litecoin to its platform, processing $3.2 million dollars in trade during the first 24 hours. The country is big on Litecoin, with the top exchange Bithumb accounting for over a quarter of global LTC trades. In fact, Bithumb is even bigger than Bittrex in terms of 24 hour USD volume with over $580 million traded according to Crypto Coin Charts. Bithumb settles $38.5 million in LTC to KRW trades per day, a trading volume that is over twice as a large as that of GDAX, Coinbase’s flagship digital currency exchange. Bithumb is also largely responsible for the rapid growth of Bitcoin Cash and was hugely influential on the adoption of other altcoins such as Qtum.
Coinone, though not as big, offers something slightly different, an offline trading exchange that appeals to traditional investors and retail traders. A direct customer service is available from headquarters in Seoul, this would be heaven for anyone that has tried and failed to get anywhere near customer service from other exchanges such as Coinbase.
This is all good news for Litecoin though it has yet to be reflected in the price, higher trading volumes do not guarantee higher prices. The trend is the key factor here and with Litecoin being the silver to Bitcoin’s gold, processing four times faster, it should start to make gains soon. In addition to its liquidity, the integration of LTC will be a long-awaited boost in the mid to long-term future for the altcoin. The coin has integrated the Bitcoin core development team’s scaling solutions (SegWit) and is exploring further technology to improve security and increase efficiency for its users. Bitcoin maybe be the current King of coins but there is light at the end of the tunnel for Litecoin
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