Meet the sibling of bitcoin enjoying meteoric rise

Key Highlights :

• Litecoin is a peer to peer cryptocurrency.
• The price of litecoin has climbed nearly 67 percent in the past week.
• Out of the total 84 billion litecoins, only a little more than 54 billion are in circulation.

While there is a hue and cry over the astronomical growth of bitcoins all over the world, breaking through all price level, another cryptocurrency named litecoin also witnessed a meteoric rise in the past few days.
 
Litecoin has surged over 5,700 per cent till December 12 on a year-to-date basis, whereas bitcoin has gained 1,550 per cent during the same period.
 
The price of litecoin has leaped by one third on Monday, making the fourth-largest cryptocurrency to a new all-time high. Litecoin today touched $245.28 per coin at Bitfinex.
 
What is Litecoin
Litecoin is a peer to peer cryptocurrency released by former Google employee Charlie Lee on October 7, 2011. This cryptocurrency is very similar to that of bitcoin and the technical implementation of both the coins are almost similar. Like bitcoins, generation of litecoins is also done by mining. This digital currency uses advanced mathematics to keep funds and transactions secure and private.

The aggregate value of Litecoins experienced a 100 per cent leap within 24 hours in November 2013. Its market cap reached $1 billion in November 2013.
 
The price of litecoin has climbed nearly 67 percent in the past week and its market cap is rapidly approaching $9 billion.
 
There are total 84 billion Litecoins. With the Litecoin, you can send and receive payment anywhere in the world.
 
The best thing about this digital currency is sender and receiver both have proof of accepting and sending payment.
 
Litecoin vs Bitcoin
Out of the total 84 billion litecoins, only a little more than 54 billion are in circulation. Unlike Bitcoin, once these 84 billion currency is circulated no more can be generated.
 
Litecoin has a little recognition outside the industry unlike bitcoin and ethereum, the two cryptocurrencies that Coinbase currently supports.
 
Since litecoins are availabe in the brokerage platform, it is seen that many new coinbased users are investing on this digital currency in small amounts as this is much cheaper than Bitcoin and ethereum.
 
Market observers believe that the rise of litecoin is due to all the attention that the Bitcoin received over the past couple of weeks.