The crypto market is bearish and Bitcoin has been among the few that has shown stability. However, there’s good news on Litecoin recently. The Winklevoss-led crypto exchange Gemini which already supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, and ZCash now announced that it is listing Litecoin trading pairs in the coming month. The news was announced during the Litecoin Foundation’s First Annual Litecoin Summit in San Francisco.
There were already rumors days before the summit that Gemini is going to add Litecoin trading pair in its exchange due to a tweet made by Gemini. The confirmation was made a few days after.
Eric Winer, who works as Gemini’s Vice President of Engineering, announced the good news. He said that “We are pleased to announce Gemini will be launching Litecoin support starting October 13th, 2018!”. It was then welcomed with excitement by the Litecoin community.
Gemini Dollar
There are a number of things that the Winklevoss are doing recently. Gemini’s biggest announcement was the Gemini dollar which is a stablecoin that is pegged at the USD. Its goal is to bring stability to those who are looking to use cryptocurrencies. And also, it plans to overthrow Tether by becoming the “world’s first regulated stablecoin”.
However, the stablecoin was met with both praise and criticisms. It was praised since it could potentially address the volatility issues in the crypto market. On the other hand, Gemini has the power to freeze accounts considering that it is regulated.
Aside from the Gemini Dollar, the Winklevoss has also attempted to have their own Bitcoin ETF only to be rejected by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for the second time around. It has rejected other applications as well noting the possibility of price manipulation. The agency is also set to make a decision regarding the VanEck and Solid X Bitcoin ETF application this month.
Positive Effect on Litecoin
Litecoin community welcomed the news. There’s a spike in the value of Litecion from $53.34 to $58.55 in just five hours. It was a 9.5% increase in the crypto asset. In addition to this, the market cap of cryptocurrency increased to $400 million during this time. Litecoin is currently ranked number 7 on CoinMarketCap.
Litecoin has been dubbed as the silver of cryptocurrencies, while Bitcoin has been considered gold. Unlike other cryptocurrencies, Charlie Lee, Litecoin’s founder thinks that Litecoin will be adopted in the future for daily transactions as it comes with cheaper and faster transaction times.
However, Charlie Lee has been criticized with his move to sell all his litecoins during the time when the cryptocurrency was at its peak. Charlie Lee said that I still think it was the right move but I question whether — I think in the long run it was the right move but in the short term while the price is down, below the all-time high, it just feels like it’s not the right decision”. He also added that “But I think like, moving forward, five years down the road, when the price is back to the all-time high, I feel like it will be the right move”.
