George’s favorite alt Litecoin (ticker symbol: LTC) is going through some tough times.
Covered:
- Litecoin Delisted
- Future Of Litecoin
Litecoin Delisted
Litecoin, the diet coke of crypto, has been officially delisted from five major crypto exchanges in South Korea including Bithumb (the country’s biggest) and Upbit. The move comes after Upbit contacted the Litecoin foundation to discuss the Mimblewimble update and found that the privacy elements were too much of a concern.
South Korean exchanges had previously been warned two weeks ago about a crackdown on privacy coins. South Korea, despite having elected a very pro crypto president, has some very stringent rules regarding crypto transactions. Specifically, they do not allow anonymous transactions of any sort. Crypto in South Korea has taken a big hit recently — it’s known as being one of the most crypto-forward countries in the world — because of Terra Luna’s collapse.
The issues for Litecoin stem from its Mimblewimble upgrade which saw the proof-of-work crypto incorporate privacy elements into its coin. It was highly touted as a price catalyst, however, it hasn’t really proven to be one. Litecoin is down 61% over the year, trading in the $62 USD range. Though the delistings haven’t had much of an effect LTC. It’s only down 0.2% in the last 24 hours.
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Future Of Litecoin
Litecoin is in a tough spot moving forward. For one, it’s a proof-of-work coin during an era when proof-of-work is under fire for its perceived environmental issues. Bitcoin is one thing, but it’s hard to justify the existence of a coin that essentially does the same thing as Bitcoin.
Another reason, privacy coins are not lucrative. Monero is the current flag bearer tech-wise and usage-wise, but outside of that privacy coins are struggling for relevancy. Most exchanges refuse to list them for one, and why invest in others when Monero’s tech has proven to be impenetrable? Unfortunately for Litecoin privacy was the thing that would separate it from Bitcoin. And it has. Just not in a good way.
Nevertheless, there are still some reasons to be optimistic. Litecoin does have a partnership with Mastercard. Not to mention, the Mimblewimble upgrade didn’t just improve privacy, it also helped with scalability and throughput. Remains to be seen how Litecoin will deal with these delistings, as well as potential other ones like major American crypto exchanges.
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