Why Litecoin's price hasn't really gone anywhere

in #crypto4 months ago

Here is a chart comparing percentage moves in Litecoin and Bitcoin over the last year, assuming they had the same starting point:

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Litecoin hasn't really tracked bitcoin higher. Why?

It's to do with an update called MWEB (also referred to as mimblewimble). This made tracking of the sender's identity hidden. In other words, Litecoin became a privacy coin.

You can opt-out of MWEB, and most western exchanges did so to comply with money-laundering rules (which say the exchanges need to be at least able to track crypto on the public ledger).

But some of the eastern exchanges decided not to take the risk, and delisted LTC altogether. For example all the Korean exchanges - Bithumb, Upbit, Gopax, Korbit, and Coinone - have delisted Litecoin.

So Litecoin went from being one of the few coins listed on ALL exchanges (which made it useful for moving money when BTC and ETH fees got too high), to being not traded at all in some parts of the world.

Being delisted can really hurt a coin.