Litecoin has made massive gains in the past few months. Since the turn of the year, Litecoin has rallied more than 100%, climbing from $30.35 on January 1 to $62.77 on March 17, as CoinMarketCap data illustrates. The jump lead many to describe it as the coin of the year so far, yet some are not so impressed.
One such detractor like this is crypto trader Mike Novogratz, who is at the helm of crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital. In a tweet the billionaire put doubt on the true value of Litecoin, saying:
“Litecoin is a glorified test net for BTC. I don’t get this rally. Sell LTC [and] buy BTC.”
According to CCN, the former Fortress hedge fund manager capitalized on Litecoin’s reputation as being digital silver to bitcoin’s gold, comparing the size of the respective precious metal and crypto markets. While silver’s market cap is a mere fraction of gold’s, Litecoin’s value is more than 6% that of bitcoin.
The other voices in the crypto space, like eToro Senior Analyst Mati Greenspan, have put forward the merits of Litecoin. In a tweet, he said:
“LTC is literally silver to bitcoin’s gold. It’s far more useful for transactions as it’s cheaper and faster than BTC.”
Litecoin has often been considered the future of crypto adoption due to its fast transaction speeds, which would be more suitable for mainstream adoption and merchant usage.
Litecoin is also pursuing one feature that’s missing from bitcoin and that’s fungibility, which will make LTC units interchangeable. The Litecoin Foundation’s partnership with privacy coin Beam is expected to result in confidential transactions for LTC in 2019.