Bitcoin

Is Facebook About To Adopt Litecoin (LTC)? Here’s What’s Behind The Rumors.

Published

6 years ago

January 23, 2018

Back in December, Charlie Lee announced on Reddit that he had offloaded his Litecoin (LTC) holdings, citing a potential conflict of interest between his continued behind-the-scenes and public activity in the space and the future of LTC from a price perspective.

Here’s what he said:

“So in a sense, it is conflict of interest for me to hold LTC and tweet about it because I have so much influence… or this reason, in the past days, I have sold and donated all my LTC. Litecoin has been very good for me financially, so I am well off enough that I no longer need to tie my financial success to Litecoin’s success. For the first time in 6+ years, I no longer own a single LTC that’s not stored in a physical Litecoin.”

The market response was somewhat mixed to the development. Some suggested that his selling out of his position was a signal of a lack of faith in Litcoin’s long-term ability to stand up to some of the emerging coins. Others thought the opposite, suggesting his move was a sensible one and one that would allow Litecoin to develop organically, without the claims that manipulation is rife, as we’ve seen with many other (much talked about) coins over the last few months.

LTC Daily Chart

This author falls into the latter camp – Lee’s involvement in Litecoin’s growth was a conflict of interest in the purest sense of the phrase, so he had two choices: continue to push for the coin’s growth and sell his stake or back away from Litecoin and hold his stake.

The former, this author believes, is much better for the Litecoin community long term.

Anyway, that’s not the point of this discussion.

Around the same time that Lee sold his LTC stake, Coinbase announced the appointment of a Facebook executive to its board of directors. The executive is David Marcus, vice president of messaging products at Facebook, and his remit is to bring years of experience in building large-scale mobile products.

This spurred a rumor:

Is the conflict of interest that Lee refers to rooted in Facebook’s intentions to take on LTC as an integrated cryptocoin within its platform and if so, did Facebook request that Lee sells his stake so as to remove this CoI ahead of said integration?

Zerohedge put forward this suggestion here.

Since this all happened, Litecoin has had a pretty rough few weeks. Right now, the coin trades for $170 a piece, down nearly 70% on December highs.

The rumors remain in place, however, and, not only are the above factors playing into the suggestion that Facebook is interested in crypto, we actually got word from Zuckerberg himself in his 2018 Facebook mission statement, suggesting that the company will be looking into cryptocurrency and its potential integration with the Facebook ecosystem going forward.

So, is Facebook looking to integrate Litecoin with its platform, and specifically, its mobile messenger platform, near term?

Of course, it’s still all rumors at this point and no one can say for sure. With that said, we’ve seen a conflict of interest sellout from Lee, a Facebook exec (a messenger exec, no less) joining Coinbase (which lists LTC as one of a very select few cryptocurrencies) and Zuckerberg announcing he’s interested in crypto as a key focal point of the social network CEO’s annual address.

And all of this within the space of a few weeks.

We think that there’s more than enough justification for a speculative punt on this development playing out in line with the rumors, given the upside potential for Litecoin if Facebook makes the announcement the LTC community is looking for.

We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest on LTC, sign up below!

Disclaimer: This article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide, investment advice. Global Coin Report and/or its affiliates, employees, writers, and subcontractors are cryptocurrency investors and from time to time may or may not have holdings in some of the coins or tokens they cover. Please conduct your own thorough research before investing in any cryptocurrency.

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Bitcoin

Bitcoin Price Dumps Below $41,000 Amid Uncertainty

Published

4 months ago

December 18, 2023

Crispus

Bitcoin price dumped hard on Monday, briefly slipping below $41,000, erasing gains recorded in the previous week. The premier cryptocurrency seems to have exhausted its recent rally propelled by industry vulnerabilities. At the time of writing, the world’s largest cryptocurrency was trading slightly lower at $41,385. Bitcoin’s total market cap has dipped by 2% over the past day, while the total volume of BTC tokens traded over the same period climbed by 58%.

Fundamentals

Bitcoin price has been facing retracements and a rollercoaster over the past few days after recently rocketing to a 20-month peak. On-chain data has suggested that many investors used the opportunity to take some profits, leading to a decline in the asset’s price.

Bitcoin’s price slump is mirrored in the wider crypto market, with the global crypto market cap decreasing by 1.85% over the past 24 hours to $1.55 trillion. The total crypto market volume has increased by 32% over the same period. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index has plunged from a level of extreme greed to a greed level of 70, suggesting a decline in risk appetite.

Ethereum, the largest altcoin by market capitalization, is currently trading at $2,167, down almost 3% for the day. Meme coins have been hit hard by the market slump, with Dogecoin and Shiba Inu down by more than 4% over the last day.

Last week on Thursday, cryptocurrency experts took notice of…

Bitcoin

Bitcoin Price is in Consolidation Mode Despite Market Optimism Post-Fed Decision

Published

4 months ago

December 14, 2023

Crispus

Bitcoin price edged lower on Thursday despite optimism in wider markets on the back of the Fed’s interest rate decision. The flagship cryptocurrency has been consolidating above the critical level of $42,000 after briefly topping $44,000, its highest level in 20 months. Bitcoin was trading 0.71% lower at $42,569 at press time. BTC’s total market cap has increased by more than 3% over the last day to $832 billion, while the total volume of the asset traded over the same period jumped by 22%.

Economic Outlook

Bitcoin price has been trading sideways over the past few days, suggesting a pause in its recent rally towards $45,000. The premier cryptocurrency has decreased by 4% in the past week but remains 15.22% higher in the month to date. The digital asset has staged a significant recovery this year after a torrid 2022 in which a string of scandals, including the collapse of FTX, led to a market meltdown, undermining the credibility of the sector.

The crypto market has been buoyed by the Fed’s latest interest rate decision. The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday held its key interest rate unchanged for the third consecutive time, in line with market expectations. With the easing of the inflation rate, members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted to keep the benchmark overnight borrowing rate in a targeted range between 5.25%-5.5%.

Additionally, the central bank indicated that three rate…

Bitcoin

Bitcoin Price Blasts $44K in Spectacular Surge as Spot Bitcoin ETF Approval Looms Large

Published

4 months ago

December 6, 2023

Crispus

Bitcoin price has been hovering above the $43,000 psychological level over the past two days amid anticipation about the potential approval of a spot bitcoin ETF. The flagship cryptocurrency has climbed more than 16% in the past week and nearly 170% in the year to date. Bitcoin’s total market cap has increased by nearly 5% over the past 24 hours to $858.9 billion, while the total volume of the token traded rose by 43%. The Bitcoin price was trading at $43,914 at press time.

Fundamentals

Bitcoin price has posted significant gains over the past few days, climbing to its highest level since April 2022, before the crash of a stablecoin that started a litany of company failures, pummeling crypto prices. The world’s largest cryptocurrency briefly topped the crucial level of $44,000 on Wednesday amid rising momentum despite being massively overbought.

According to analysts, with no spot bitcoin ETF approvals yet and the halving event five to six months away, the market is riding on FOMO. Capital has been flowing in the Bitcoin market amid enthusiasm that the launches of spot ETF will bring in billions of dollars of new investment into the crypto sector.

Investors have already started providing capital as seed money for ETF products. Notably, a recent report by CoinDesk showed that the world’s largest fund manager, BlackRock, received $100,000 in capital from a seed investor for its spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund…