August was a record-setting month for the crypto markets, but few top-tier coins matched litecoin’s rate of ascent. Between August 1 and August 31, the litecoin price rose from $43 to $64. This 49% climb took litecoin to an all-time high. Over the next two days, the litecoin price increased an astonishing 44%, eventually peaking at $92.
But then the markets crashed. Bitcoin fell from $4,950 to $2,970, ethereum fell from $390 to $198, and litecoin fell 65% to $32. Over the ensuing days, litecoin managed to claw its way back to $50, a psychologically-important threshold, and it remained close to this level ever since–at least until September 21.
The markets began the day relatively stable, but at 14:00 UTC prices began to slide across the board, and litecoin was not immune. By 15:30, the litecoin price had fallen beneath the $60 mark. It continued to decline from there, eventually reaching about $46 at the time of writing for a 24-hour decline of 11%. This retreat reduced the litecoin market cap to just under $2.5 billion, forcing litecoin down to the 6th place in the market cap rankings.
Positive Long-Term Signals
Today’s price decline has little to do with anything inherent to litecoin; rather, the coin just happens to be one of the cryptocurrencies hardest hit by the market’s downward turn. In fact, several events have occurred this week that bode well for litecoin’s long-term prospects.
First, developer Charlie Lee successfully completed on-chain atomic swaps with two different cryptocurrencies: Decred and Vertcoin. While these are not the much-hyped atomic swaps that will be made possible by Lightning Networks, they demonstrate a step forward in the ability to trade coins across blockchains and confirm litecoin’s role as an innovator in the crypto space.
Second, Coinbase announced the addition of litecoin and ethereum to its vault service. By storing coins in the vault rather than keeping them active in the Coinbase wallet, users receive increased security. For many people, Coinbase is their on-ramp into the cryptocurrency ecosystem–the place they obtain and often store their first cryptocurrency holdings. This announcement provides these casual users with a (somewhat more) secure place to store coins until they are ready to move their coins into a self-managed wallet.