Photo: QuoteInspector
Forbes analyst Billy Bambrough recently gave price predictions for both Litecoin and XRP. What he proposed is that there will be a flipping toward the end of the year that will put LTC ahead of XRP.
It’s true that Litecoin’s furious rise over the last few months, which has been on the up since it hit recent lows of $23 per coin in December last year, has been largely put down to developer efforts to improve security and privacy and several high-profile partnerships.
A report by cryptocurrency brokerage SFOX says:
“Litecoin volatility spiked when the Litecoin Foundation announced it’s exploring the integration of Mimblewimble, a protocol offering privacy and fungibility to blockchains.
In March, keep an eye on how privacy news moments impact markets, such as recent revelations over Coinbase’s third-party service provider selling client data.”
Apart from the privacy improvements and partnerships that the network has been making, it is also suggested that another possible reason behind the price boost is the upcoming Litecoin block halving scheduled for August 2019. This isn’t a surprise because history has revealed that upcoming block halving always boosts the price of a coin.
Anonymity Drives Adoptions
There is no gainsaying the fact that the confidentiality of transactions will increase the chances of the LTC coin. The step is a welcome development because more investors are getting conscious of transactions. In light of this, the steps toward anonymity will fast-track Litecoin (LTC)’s stakes in the crypto-sphere.
As for XRP, Bambrough cites a number of negative press events for the coin and associated company Ripple. While the company has been at the heart of several stories of large-scale adoption by financial institution, Bambrough believes that the announcement by J.P. Morgan to create the JPM Coin has soured investor interest in Ripple and XRP.
As we’ve already reported, Binance Research has refuted the idea that JPM Coin will compete directly with Ripple or XRP, despite the knee-jerk reaction to believe otherwise. However, Bambrough claims the shifting landscape of cryptocurrency, with positive sentiment currently weighing towards LTC, could be enough for Litecoin to flip XRP by the end of the year.
As of writing, LTC has a market capitalization of $3.4 billion compared to XRP’s $13 billion, representing a substantial gap to be overcome.
Still, Bambrough finds reasons to be bullish on LTC and its increased real-world use and adoption, quoting a note to clients by eToro’s senior market analyst Mati Greenspan published earlier last week.
Greenspan said:
“The number one real-world usage of litecoin it seems is as a settlement method for crypto-traders. For people who often send money from exchange to exchange to private wallets, it’s much cheaper and faster to do this with litecoin than it is with bitcoin.
This is why it indeed deserves the title ‘digital silver’ and with the upcoming halving event in early August, which is likely why it’s been outperforming the rest of the crypto markets lately.”
Venezuelan Crisis Made Allowing Users to Send BTC and LTC into the Country Possible
Meanwhile, crisis-hit Venezuela this week launched a government-sanctioned cryptocurrency remittance service, allowing users to send Bitcoin and Litecoin into the country—somewhat proving Litecoin and Bitcoin’s use case in a country that’s becoming reliant on cryptocurrencies.
People in Venezuela have been struggling against economic collapse and hyperinflation over recent years, with the president Nicolas Maduro clinging onto power despite a U.S.-backed challenge from opposition leader Juan Guaido and international sanctions.
The service is designed to “guarantee financial inclusion along with the social protection of the people of Venezuela” though it warns it could be disabled at any time “depending on the availability of funds in bolívars.”
This week Derek Capo, the CEO of decentralized payment platform TokenPay, and Litecoin founder Charlie Lee, will reveal details of their strategic partnership, expected to result in banking services that integrate crypto.
On March 11 at 12:30PM EST we are LIVE on https://t.co/BiMGbfpzD8 with #Litecoin Founder and our WEG Bank FinTech Partner @SatoshiLite 🔥 He will be talking with @derekcapo about the progress we have made since announcing our strategic partnership in July. https://t.co/FjhWYa6nP0 pic.twitter.com/aoTedRjxNJ
— TokenPay 🛒 (@tokenpay) March 8, 2019
At the time of writing, CoinMarketCap shows that the Litecoin was on the steady $56.07 with the slight fall of 1,64% while XRP fell by 0,47% to $0.31.
