Credit: Shutterstock photoIn a game-changing move that’s poised to send shockwaves through the entire crypto-scene, a staggering $99 million worth of Litecoin (LTC), was traded in a single transaction last Thursday. Although the buyer and seller remain anonymous for now, the solo trade was completed between two cryptocurrency wallets and took a mere 2.5 minutes to settle.
The historic deal has already shaken some of the crypto-community to the core, especially as the whole transaction was executed for just $0.40 in mining fees.
While the crypto world struggles with market volatility and double-digit fluctuations, this landmark exchange could be catalytic. One of the main sources of contention for the blockchain industry is that it’s still grappling to establish the infrastructure for data mining. This includes managing credit cards, debit cards, transfers, online payment options and fees to enable swift daily transactions and purchases.
Now we have a transaction that was 500 times faster to process than a traditional bank transfer, and cost less than a candy bar.
Once the ground-breaking trade details were posted on Twitter and Reddit, the crypto-community went into overdrive. Crypto bulls were fast to conclude that transactions like these show that “cryptocurrency is better for sending money than traditional payment systems.”
Meanwhile, other users pointed out that “similar transactions in traditional finance would take days to clear, multiple parties to sign off, and carry hefty fees.”
Indeed, this landmark deal also highlights the inefficiency of traditional banking institutions. Eventually it could lead customers to question the need to rely on banks to save, invest, transfer, pay or even manage transactions due to extra fees, transfer costs and outdated processes. Litecoin could also contend with some of the most popular traditional online payment platforms such as PayPal.
What’s more, Litecoin can now provide users with a more cost-effective payment method with swifter transaction times versus its competitors. This is a positive sign for the long-haul, especially as other crypto platforms such as Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) are still struggling with efficiency.
According to BitInfoCharts, Bitcoin fees are currently around $1.00 (average) and the average block time for Bitcoin is around 9 minutes, compared to Litecoin’s average of just 2.2 minutes.
We can see from the TipRanks Coinwatch platform that the news sentiment about Litecoin is very bullish right now. This is reflected in its price: over the last three months it has seen a fresh uptrend and prices have soared to $252.2, up from $102.51. Due to this growing momentum, Litecoin is now ranked as the sixth largest cryptocurrency in the world with a market value of $9.06 billion.
What you need to know about Litecoin
Litecoin was launched in 2011 as the brainchild of Charlie Lee and offers a peer-to-peer, de-centralized internet currency. The goal was to facilitate payments to anyone around the world at a minimal, near to zero cost. And it seems like the coin is now making strong progress in making this goal a reality.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
