HomeNewsCrypto Chinese Investors Start to Drive up the Litecoin Price Crypto, Newsby Tyler Durden While Bitcoin and Ethereum appear stuck in sideways limbo action after last week's "crash" from which they both rebounded promptly, other altcoins are gaining a lot of interest, mostly from Asian buyers in desperate need of a new bubble to chase higher.And Litecoin (which was recently added to Coinbase) is the cryptocurrency which has fallen squarely in their sights, having soared nearly 50% in the past 24 hours to over $48... ... approaching its all time highs.Having missed out on much of the surge in Bitcoin and Ethereum in recent weeks, Litecoin is, if only for the time being, the primary focus of cyrpto traders.With over $1 billion trading volume in 24-hours, Litecoin has become the latest darling of Chinese and Korean momentum chasers.A quick look at the source of activity reveals that over 50% of the volume is out of China and Korea.However, as the Merkel points out, the bigger question is why this price increase is happening right now.

One possible explanation points to concerns about the upcoming hurdle event for Bitcoin, where a looming chain split on August 1st has some people concerned.It is possible a chain split could hurt Bitcoin’s market position and another cryptocurrency may overtake it, especially with the market share of Ethereum soaring and poised to overtake Bitcoin (at the current pace of growh) in months.It could also merely be another false breakout: there have been several LTC price rises over the past few months which never lasted long, even as BTC and ETH continued to soar.That said, the Litecoin community is delighted by today's price increase.Things have been looking better for Litecoin, ever since it enabled Segregated Witness and Charlie Lee left Coinbase to focus on the digital silver.To be sure, with a market cap of "only" $2.5 billion (4th behind BTC, ETH and Ripple), the altcoin has a long way to go before catching up with Bitcoin at just under $44 billion.A quick primer on Litcoin: launched in 2011, Litecoin was one of the first altcoins to gain significant traction.

As opposed to some newer altcoins like Ethereum, Ripple and Monero, Litecoin is a straight fork of Bitcoin’s codebase but with a different mining algorithm and some changed parameters, such as faster confirmation times.This similarity to Bitcoin does mean that Litecoin suffers from similar weaknesses as Bitcoin, like transaction malleability.Ultimately, allegations that the move is merely another bubble forming (it is, but so is virtually every other asset class) or that LTC, like BTC and ETH, is merely rising due a result of the latest and greatest ponzi scheme will emerge.pitcairn bitcoinThey may be right, but now that Asian buyers - whose remarkable resilience is well known to both Beijing and the PBOC - are involved, it is impossible to predict just how high this particular "bubble" will grow before bursting.ethereum venture capitalHomeNewsCrypto Litecoin Is Far More Popular Among CNY Traders Than Ethereum Crypto, Newsbitcoin vkontakte

In China, Litecoin is not an altcoin (self.litecoin)submitted by Litecoin FounderAfter talking to some Litecoin supporters here in China, I just realized that they do not consider Litecoin as an altcoin.There's Bitcoin, Litecoin, and altcoins.It came about because they were telling me that they rarely ever trade in altcoins.I was confused until I realized Litecoin does not fall under their categorization of altcoins.bitcoin banco santanderπ Rendered by PID 15444 on app-510 at 2017-06-24 12:36:27.794190+00:00 running 3522178 country code: SG.ubs on bitcoinLitecoin used to be a top player in the crypto space, branded as the “silver to bitcoin’s gold”.china worries hit bitcoin pricesDuring the 2013 bitcoin bubble, LTC was the #2 market and was highly correlated to the price of bitcoin.

In 2013, bitcoin gained +11,000% and litecoin gained +500% over the price of bitcoin during its peak.The price of LTC hit an all time high of around $50 on some exchanges.The last major litecoin rally was during the summer of 2015, when a Chinese LTC Ponzi scheme managed to accumulate at least 20% of the entire supply.Most of that supply was instantly dumped and the LTC/BTC markets have been on a long bear trend since.Litecoin lost its correlation to bitcoin after the summer pump and was left behind during most of the year long BTC bull trend.That said, its USD value has remained somewhat stable and consolidating within a tight range.Although litecoin hasn’t been a very good market to trade for most of 2016, it’s possible that this rock is a sleeping giant ready to rise from its slumber.Here are four reasons why litecoin may hit a bullish trend reversal in 2017.Recently the People’s Bank of China cracked down on major crypto exchanges.The result being that they stopped all margin trading and have eliminated the zero fees model.

This means that Chinese traders can only play in the spot markets and will have to devise entirely new strategies for making profit.The only way to make profit on the spot markets is to buy low and sell high.Traders can no longer short by selling coins they don’t have.If they want to be a participant in the crypto markets they need to own some coins.The larger bitcoin bull trend is still intact but likely due for several months of consolidation, perhaps forming a large symmetrical triangle.Generally speaking, when the price of bitcoin stabilizes, liquidity shifts into the altcoin markets.As it turns out, the only altcoin market available on the top Chinese bitcoin exchanges (OKCoin, Huobi and BTCChina) is litecoin.Given the choice between the two markets, the percentage gains for moving a smaller cap market like LTC can be much higher.Accumulating litecoin at the bottom of its price range is also a cheaper option than accumulating bitcoin at the top of its range.Game theory would suggest that buying litecoin has more profit potential.

Litecoin is the only altcoin that trades more volume in fiat than against BTC.The majority of litecoin’s volume is actually in CNY, which means the markets could take on a life of their own and easily become non-correlated to the price of bitcoin.Litecoin is currently in the process of trying to help bitcoin’s scaling debate by moving towards the activation of Segregated Witness and Lightning Networks.Litecoin founder Charlie Lee stated in a recent post: “Until SegWit, LN, and Confidential Transactions, I didn’t see a need for Litecoin to come out to help test features before they are on Bitcoin.So I was happy to let Litecoin go on without a lot of development.Hence my tweet about Litecoin not needing development.But with SegWit and Bitcoin’s current block scaling deadlock, I see a potential for Litecoin to help Bitcoin break through this deadlock.Litecoin can take a lead and be a positive force in the cryptocurrency space.We have been drafting behind the Bitcoin race car for many years.

It’s about time to take a turn out front.” If Litecoin implements these changes before Bitcoin, this will completely change the network’s fundamentals and offer something new to the ecosystem.That alone has the potential to attract market interest from crypto traders.The Litecoin network’s hash rate is starting to show exponential growth.Sometimes a coin’s price can be correlated to the amount of hashing power on the network.The increased difficulty means that miners need to spend money in upgrading their equipment to be more efficient.If the cost of mining coins is on par or greater than the price, miners will hoard coins instead of immediately selling on the markets.Litecoin is currently the second most secure blockchain in the world and it doesn’t seem like the market value is reflecting this achievement.If there’s one thing that can be said about the markets, it’s that trends don’t last forever.Any market that’s still alive with decent liquidity tends to go through cycles.