Litecoin getting ready for the next breakthrough?

There is a lot of evidence that Litecoin, often referred to as “digital silver”, is gearing up for a new surge in popularity. Although, despite all accumulated experience and recognition, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the cryptocoin to compete with more recent developments.

The number of unique Litecoin addresses has grown by 47% over the last ten days. It’s a continuation of the trend that the Santiment blockchain analytical company specialists discovered at the end of July: The cryptocurrency is experiencing a strong wave of accumulation generated by whales, whose wallets contain 1000 to 100 000 LTC. A new report from the company indicates that since the beginning of July, Litecoin whales have increased their reserves by about 270,000 LTC, which amounts to around $ 30 million. This clearly shows that the trend may shift to bull.

Santiment experts point out that the ratio of the market value to the realized price of Litecoin (an indicator that allows you to determine the bottom and top of the market) is at the same level as it was in 2019 and 2020 when LTC reached its lowest point. If the number of unique Litecoin addresses continues to rise, it almost guarantees a transition to a long-term bull trend.

Adding to that point, a month earlier, analysts at CoinShares claimed that institutional investors continue to withdraw funds from BTC, ETH, and XRP, with money flowing instead into such crypto assets as Cardano, Stellar and Litecoin.

Created in October 2011 by a developer named Charlie Lee, LTC is one of the first cryptocurrencies. Lee still takes an active part in the fate of his brainchild. Basically, Litecoin is the first fork of Bitcoin. Based on the VTS program code, both networks operate on the same principle: data is stored in the form of a blockchain, with each block containing a hash of the previous one. The mining processes for both cryptocurrencies are also similar. At the same time, the speed of the LTC network is noticeably higher, and the final number of cryptocoins produced is four times that of Bitcoin.

This combination of qualities made Litecoin a more convenient means of payment than the original BTC. Take it from the author of these lines, who can admit to using LTC for private settlements himself.

For the longest time, prior to the 2017 crypto boom, Litecoin hadn’t been all that popular; its price remained relatively stable and fluctuated in the $ 3-4 range. However, the growing interest in cryptocurrencies has spurred a new wave of attention to one of the oldest coins. And the true revolution which led to the price of LTC skyrocketing in 2017 was the introduction of SegWit technology in its network. The event became the key to further growth in the value of “digital silver”. Besides, in the case of Litecoin, the SegWit implementation went much smoother than in the Bitcoin network, where it required 95% user approval and ultimately led to a split in the community.

During the bull cryptorally of 2017, Litecoin was one of the record-breakers among the top altcoins in terms of value growth: Over the course of the year, its price multiplied by 90 (!). Then, of course, LTC began losing ground to many of nimbler newcomers to the altcoin market. But now, there are lots of signs indicating that Litecoin is heading for a new career takeoff.

Since March 30 of this year, American customers using PayPal mobile wallets to store cryptocurrencies can pay with them for purchases at several million retail outlets in partnership with the system. Quite soon, all 29 million retailers will be connected to the service. PayPal customers can use Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, or Bitcoin Cash. After verifying the order, PayPal converts the designated cryptocurrency into fiat and conducts the transaction. In addition to the purchase, the client receives the crypto sale confirmation.

And from May 27, LTC can be used as a means of payment in the Protonmail Shop online store and the Venmo mobile application. For the Paypal-owned Venmo payment service, which allows users to send and receive funds through their mobile devices, Litecoin is one of the four available cryptocurrency payment methods.

That being said, an actual new “step” for Litecoin could become the Wanchain (WAN) cryptocurrency, the developers of which are engaged in creating technology for interaction between the networks. They have already linked major cryptocurrency networks before, and now it’s Litecoin’s turn. The Wanchain team is currently making their coin compatible with smart contracts and decentralized applications.

LTC will be one of the last cryptocoins to get connected to cross-chain infrastructure. The Wanchain platform already works with BTC, ETH, EOS, and Binance Smart Chain. In particular, for good old Litecoin, this means receiving new functionality thanks to Wanchain. WAN will make it compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and smart contracts, which will allow LTC to be used when working with decentralized applications. Wanchain people call this integration of cryptocurrency the only way to develop through building a decentralized financial environment.

Wanchain founder Jack Lu commented on the initiative: “Litecoin is one of the most important cryptocurrencies in the world. It’s also one of the largest among those that do not support smart contracts. The Wanchain team and some of our partners will help unleash its potential in working with decentralized finance applications.”

Wanchain representatives promised that linking Litecoin to other coins wouldn’t harm the security of the network. LTC integration into the Wanchain ecosystem will allow its holders to receive passive income from their coins. That is, LTC will become available for staking and farming of profits through WAN-connected platforms. For example, Litecoin liquidity pool is already available on the WanSwap decentralized exchange. Coin depositors will be able to receive a percentage of the exchange fees. Later, Litecoin proxy tokens will appear on the WanLend credit service, with the yield on the invested coins reaching up to 30%. Litecoin can then also be used in gaming applications on Wanchain, payments and money transfer applications, and option exchanges.

All of this, of course, inspires optimism about the future of Litecoin. Still,  it is becoming increasingly difficult for LTC to compete with more modern and advanced blockchains, with smart contracts built-in from the start and tailored to the needs of the DeFi industry. Litecoin, after all, was initially created purely as a means of payment and continues to perform these functions wonderfully. However, it doesn’t fit well into the modern world of complex schemes and decentralized finance.