Cryptocurrencies are as volatile as ever, but these days, that volatility is moving in the right direction—and there may be no better example of that than Litecoin.
The digital currency is up 34% in early trading Wednesday and has seen its value jump from $109.07 on Feb. 2 to $210.98 as of 9:45 a.m. EST Wednesday. That’s a 93% increase in just under two weeks.
The cryptocurrency’s market cap has soared by more than $5.6 billion in that time period, according to CoinMarketCap.
Litecoin is the fifth largest digital currency, as ranked by market capitalization. Since its debut at the start of 2017, it has increased in value by nearly 5,000%. So what’s driving today’s increase?
No one factor seems to be deserving of credit. Crytopcurrencies, on the whole, are on the rise today after Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, shrugged off talk of a crypto ban. A new Litecoin payment solution is also set to release in the coming weeks that will allow businesses to accept payments using the coin.
Another possible reason for the rise? The imminent release of Litecoin Cash, which claims it will award 10 Litecoin Cash coins for each Litecoin token. Cryptocurrency analysts, though, warn Litecoin Cash has no ties with the founders of Litecoin and could be a scam. Litecoin’s founder Charlie Lee has warned via Twitter that “the Litecoin team and I are not forking Litecoin. Any forks that you hear about is a scam trying to confuse you to think it’s related to Litecoin.”
