Why you should invest in Litecoin: Cryptocurrency goes 400% up in month

In case you missed your early chance to invest in bitcoin, ethereum and bitcoin cash, everything is still not lost.

An explosive run by ‘litecoin’ in recent days has gotten the attention of the cryptocurrency world and beyond.

In the past one month, litecoin has grown 400 percent, from $60 to $240. On a year-to-date basis, it has surged over 5,700 per cent till December 12, whereas bitcoin has gained 1,550 percent during the same period.

Litecoin has market capitalization of $13.14 billion. IOTA and ripple have a market capitalisation of $13.61 billion and $10.38 billion, respectively.

At the time of writing this article, IOTA was trading at $5.03, while Ripple was trading at $0.268656 at around the same time.

Also read: Bitcoin soars all-time high: Why RBI is warning investors to not bet on cryptocurrency

There are several factors which may be 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.

There is also speculation that the cryptocurrency creator Charlie Lee's recent media blitz, appearing on Squawk Alley and Glenn Beck, is contributing to its rapid ascent in price, giving him a pedestal to pitch Litecoin as the currency of fast transactions and daily use.