Litecoin (CCC: LTC-USD), the silver to Bitcoin’s (CCC: BTC-USD) gold, is gradually gaining favor as a form of online payment. This is because, as more businesses accept Bitcoin as payment, they are increasingly including Litecoin in the mix. As a result, the value of LTC-USD as a transactional cryptocurrency is gradually increasing.
LTC-USD hit a five-month low of $107.40 on July 20 but has since rallied to $192.04 as of Nov. 27. That’s a 78.8 percent increase from its previous low point. Furthermore, Litecoin closed last year at $126.23, implying a 52.1 percent year-to-date (YTD) gain.
While not as strong as some other cryptos, most investors will find it to be a reasonable return. In fact, according to Google Finance, the S&P hasn’t done this well so far this year, up a little over 25% YTD.
What are Litcoin Recent Developments?
Retailers are gradually accepting Litecoin as a payment mechanism for products and services. When AMC (NYSE:AMC), the world’s biggest movie theater chain, began taking online payments lately, they accepted Litecoin alongside Bitcoin (CCC:BTC-USD), Bitcoin Cash (CCC:BCH-USD), and Ethereum (CCC:ETH-USD).
Adam Aron, the CEO of AMC, tweeted on Nov. 11 that the four types of crypto payment for online bookings and other things are already in force, according to Coin Telegraph.
Furthermore, he stated that they currently account for 14% of all internet payments. This has to be after a period of putting them to the test for online payments.
He also said that the firm offers Google Pay, Apple Pay, and PayPal as payment methods. You can pay in either traditional fiat currencies like dollars, euros, or cryptocurrency in each of these. He also stated that Dogecoin (CCC:DOGE-USD) will be the next cryptocurrency to be added.
Litecoin now has its own “eBit” Visa card, which makes things much easier. It’s a virtual debit card that converts LTC to USD in minutes and is now only accessible in the United States. After each recent dollar purchase, it allows you to retain your eBit Visa card balance in Litecoin.
You may even put dollars onto your card and keep the balance in Litecoin until you spend it. According to the Litecoin Foundation, the card may be used at 50 million shops globally.
What Does This Mean for Litecoin?
Apart from this new Litecoin Visa card, you can’t actually utilize Litecoin for retail purchases right now. If this takes off, expect to see similar cards used by other retailers and cryptos.
Why would someone do this rather than just use a standard debit card? For one thing, people these days are less trusting of fiat money banks.
After all, President Joe Biden’s nominee for Comptroller of the Currency has expressed interest in drastically reorganizing consumer bank accounts so that the government may have direct control over them. She advocated in a recent article that all client demand deposits be transferred to the Federal Reserve. This would force community banks to offer fee-based “pass-through FedAccounts,” which are effectively Fed-hosted accounts.
This is a far-reaching policy idea that few people will accept. As a result, many people may prefer to retain all of their money or balances in cryptocurrency, which is unregulated by the government. That might be possible with this sort of eBit card.
Furthermore, you may earn staking fees by buying products and services with LTC-USD. In the realm of fiat monetary deposits, this is what is known as interest. As a result, just the bare minimum of fiat currency needed to fund a retail transaction would be converted from LTC-USD to fiat currency.
The basic conclusion is that if more large businesses follow AMC’s lead and the Litecoin eBit card becomes popular, Litecoin will climb in value.
“The views and opinions on this Crypto News Website are solely those of the authors and contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of iBaseTrading or its partners.”
