Daily Litecoin News Update
While the broader crypto market remains flat, Litecoin is soaring on Monday morning. Litecoin prices are up more than 6.83% in the trailing 24 hours and, at the time of writing, the LTC to USD rate was around $230.00. There are good reasons why Litecoin is one of the top performing cryptos today.
LTC price speculations are peaking on the heels of two major events.
LitePay Launch The “Flappening”
The first event is obvious. Today is the day when “LitePay” is finally delivered to the market.
The dearly-awaited payment processing service dedicated to boost Litecoin’s mainstream adoption is expected to be released later today.
A secure wallet, a Visa -compatible debit card, and swift merchant processing are some of the great features LitePay will yield to businesses and consumers alike.
In short, this service will serve to bridge the gap between Litecoin and fiat currency users, bringing them together on one platform. So, it’s understandable why investors are hoping for Litecoin to hit a grand slam following its launch.
As for the second event, this one is intriguing. Speculators are putting their money on LTC after Litecoin founder Charlie Lee made a bold prediction on Sunday.
Lee predicts that Litecoin will surpass Bitcoin Cash in market value this year in an event dubbed the “flappening,” which puts a spin on the more commonly understood event: the “flippening.” Investors are chiming in because it makes sense now more than ever.
To reprint his exact quote, Lee said, “The flippening (ETH> BTC ) will never happen. But the flappening (LTC>BCH) will happen this year.
” (Source: “ Twitter post ,” @SatoshiLite, February 25, 2018.)
Just to be clear, the flippening is identified as an event in which Ethereum will surpass Bitcoin to become the most valuable cryptocurrency.
According to Lee, the odds of that happening are exactly zero.
The flappening, however, is another story. Mind you, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash are archrivals. Both are touted to be Bitcoin substitutes.
Lee’s distaste for Bitcoin Cash is no secret. He has been a very vocal opponent of Bitcoin’s hard-forked offshoot, BCH, and is often seen taking shots at Bitcoin Cash backer Roger Ver for referring to Bitcoin Cash as the “real Bitcoin.”
For those who haven’t been following the ongoing Bitcoin versus Bitcoin Cash saga, the two sides have been in a perpetual squabble over which coin is the “pure” coin.
Bitcoin Cash developers promote BCH as the pure Bitcoin on the premise that it stuck with Satoshi’s original code by not adopting “SegWit.” They argue that Bitcoin corrupted Satoshi’s vision. Bitcoin enthusiasts argue that BTC has allowed for soft-forks like SegWit to better adapt itself to changing times.
Regardless, Lee’s prediction is based on solid ground. The disparity between the Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin market caps has been narrowing of late.
Chart courtesy of TradingView.com
The flappening could occur in two ways: Litecoin increases in value to supersede Bitcoin Cash. This could possibly happen as Litecoin reaches the mainstream.
LitePay will likely play the key role here.
Bitcoin Cash drops in value below Litecoin. There’s a good possibility that this could happen because Bitcoin is fully adopting SegWit, which would make it much cheaper and faster, overcoming the one shortcoming that led to the Bitcoin Cash hard fork in the first place. If Bitcoin solves its problem, investors will shun the Bitcoin imposter.
Both occurrences seem plausible, which is why Lee’s prediction doesn’t seem far-fetched.
Analyst Take
As the “chikun” flaps its wings to take flight, we foresee the flappening occurring as much as Lee does. If Litecoin were to attain Bitcoin Cash’s current market capitalization in excess of $20.0 billion, the Litecoin price would have to hit somewhere close to $360.00, which is slightly lower than our LTC price target of $400.00.
So we’re fully subscribing to Lee’s prediction, which only bolsters our Litecoin price forecast for 2018.
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