It was not that long ago that many in the cryptocurrency community had pronounced Litecoin dead. Nevertheless, the Litecoin community stayed the course and refused to abandon their coin. Their persistence is paying off.
The litecoin price rose more than 60% this week in anticipation of and following its June 19 listing on BitStamp. Litecoin now has EUR, USD, and BTC trading pairs on the platform.
As Europe’s first licensed bitcoin exchange, BitStamp handles a great deal of cryptocurrency trading volume, and the Litecoin community was understandably ecstatic about BitStamp’s decision.
Litecoin Price Gains Weight
Litecoin began the week hovering in the $28-32 range, and it remained there until June 16, when it began to experience a profound climb. By June 17, it was trading above $40. On June 19, the litecoin price briefly crossed the $50 threshold leading up to litecoin trading pairs going live but had fallen back to $48.97 at the time of writing.
This is the first time litecoin has pierced the $50 mark since November 2013. After falling from this peak, the litecoin price spent several years averaging below $5, and it held a value of $10 as recently as April. This means the litecoin price has rallied more than 500% in the past two months.
Litecoin has a 24-hour volume of $1.276 billion, a remarkable feat considering the Litecoin market cap is currently only $2.5 billion. In fact, litecoin’s 24-hour volume is only $67 million less than bitcoin’s, even though bitcoin has a market cap 17x as large.
Litecoin currently has the fourth largest cryptocurrency market cap, according to CoinMarketCap.