Litecoin founder Charlie Lee sells all litecoins he owned

The cryptocurrency market received a shocker when Litecoin founder Charlie Lee announced in a Reddit thread that he has liquidated all of his Litecoins. He cited “a conflict of interest” for him to continue buying and selling the cryptocurrency.

"Whenever I tweet about Litecoin price or even just good or bads news, I get accused of doing it for personal benefit. Some people even think I short LTC! So in a sense, it is a conflict of interest for me to hold LTC and tweet about it because I have so much influence." Lee said in the post.

He further wrote that for this reason, in the past days, he has sold and donated all his LTC (Litecoin). The cryptocurrency has been very good for him financially, so he is well off enough that he no longer needs to tie his financial success to the cryptocurrency's success.

Lee, however, clarified that he is not quitting Litecoin. "I will still spend all my time working on Litecoin. When Litecoin succeeds, I will still be rewarded in lots of different ways, just not directly via ownership of coins."

This is the first time when the founder of the major cryptocurrency has publicly divested himself from his holdings.

Satoshi Nakamoto, an obscure figure is the founder of Bitcoin. Besides, Vitalik Buterin, founder of Ethereum, still owns a lot of ether and stays active on social media.

Litecoin growth

Lee has divested as the cryptocurrency has surged over 5,700 per cent in the past year. Besides, in the past month, it has grown over 400 percent, from $60 to $275.

Experts say that there are several factors which are contributing to the explosive growth of Litecoin.

According to a Forbes article, the recent launch of Bitcoin futures trading on Cboe caused a spike in Bitcoin prices. Litecoin’s behavior tends to have a direct relationship to Bitcoin’s.

Especially as network speeds lag and transaction fees soar on Bitcoin, Litecoin may be an appealing trading alternative with its faster speeds and lower transaction costs.

Coinbase, the popular cryptocurrency brokerage, has also ballooned in user base alongside the growth of Bitcoin. Coinbase currently only supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin—so the positive relationship between Bitcoin and Litecoin might be putting a special spotlight amid the rapid growth of Coinbase.