<center>![](http://i.imgur.com/S20gf0u.jpg)</center>


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This past week has been the **most exciting week for cryptocurrency this year** - so far.
Almost all major cryptocurrencies were rising again and again, breaking records here and there!

***Bitcoin*** broke through its all-time high of $1,242 from November 2013, and even continued to rise **over $1,600.** *(What do you think - when will we break through the $2,000 mark?)*
***Ethereum*** has also created a new record when it surpassed the price of $100 earlier this morning. 

### The rise of ***Litecoin*** was especially interesting to me - it rose over 30% in the last few days and reached a 3-year high of over $25.
Litecoin has always been the "**Silver**" to Bitcoin's "**Gold**", so after stagnating below the $10 mark for years, it's amazing to finally see it rise back up again. 

### There are multiple possible reasons for this sudden upwards trend: 
***Coinbase***, one of the largest exchange platforms in the world, has finally **added support for Litecoin.**

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<center>![img](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*Lf_XajvXKBSVywzKX6oJMg.png)</center>


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Coinbase started as a platform to exchange fiat money to ***Bitcoin***, and then added support for ***Ethereum*** last summer.
The reason to choose Ethereum *over* Litecoin was that Ethereum's focus on **smart contracts** seemed more promising to Coinbase.
Interestingly, **Charlie Lee**, ***the creator of Litecoin***, is a director of engineering at Coinbase - and has been for the last 4 years.

#### **So what excactly has changed that made Coinbase support Litecoin?** 
 I'm sure most of you have heard of the struggle that Bitcoin is currently going through - since there are so many Bitcoin transactions now daily, the network takes *too long* to confirm them, so one of the following 2 solutions needs to be implemented:
- ***Bitcoin Unlimited:*** deleting the block size limit
- ***Segregated Witness*** - *SegWit*: increasing the block size slightly and transfering non-essential data off the blockchain. 
#### The Bitcoin community still hasn't come to a conclusion yet, but Charlie Lee and the *Litecoin* community agreed to integrate SegWit into Litecoin.

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<center>![img](https://cointelegraph.com/images/725_Ly9jb2ludGVsZWdyYXBoLmNvbS9zdG9yYWdlL3VwbG9hZHMvdmlldy8yYzBkZmUwMjlhNWQ5ODAxMjdiNzc4NTY0ODVhY2FlMi5qcGc=.jpg)</center>


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This has spiked the interest in Litecoin and increased its **trading volume**, and therefore Coinbase decided to finally add them to their exchange service as 3rd cryptocurrency. 
**And SegWit actually comes with more benefits as well:**
- SegWit eliminates the **risk** of a third party altering a transaction before it's been confirmed
- SegWit enables ***"Lightning Networks"*** - *instant* Litecoin payments, something that has never been possible for any major cryptocurrency.

<blockquote>
"At Coinbase, our mission is to create an open financial system for the world. We're paving our path to that goal by creating the most trusted and easiest way to buy [and] sell digital currency.
This [integration] is part of our shift to supporting more types of digital assets over the coming year."

-Coinbase statement
</blockquote>

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<center>![](http://i.imgur.com/CLeHFrK.jpg)</center>
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## The Future of Litecoin?


Charlie Lee has told TechCrunch that Litecoin could be a "*testing ground for future Bitcoin features*".
If SegWit and Lightning Networks could be implemented successfully, it could be a positive example for the Bitcoin community and eventually help with their decision. 

<p><hr><br>

### <center>What do *you* think about the future of Litecoin? Will it be able to surpass its all-time high of $50 anytime soon?</center> 
<center>Will the full implementation of Lightning Networks increase the popularity and trading volume even more?</center>
#### <center>**Let me know in the comments!**</center>


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<br>

*[Cover 1](https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/coinbase-litecoin.png), [Cover 2](http://bitcoinchaser.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Litecoin-Locks-SegWit-In-Featured.png), Images: [2](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*Lf_XajvXKBSVywzKX6oJMg.png), [3](https://cointelegraph.com/images/725_Ly9jb2ludGVsZWdyYXBoLmNvbS9zdG9yYWdlL3VwbG9hZHMvdmlldy8yYzBkZmUwMjlhNWQ5ODAxMjdiNzc4NTY0ODVhY2FlMi5qcGc=.jpg), [4](http://news.8btc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/litecoin.jpg), Sources: [1](http://coinmarketcap.com/), [2](http://www.coindesk.com/could-litecoin-be-the-first-major-blockchain-with-lightning/), [3](http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-market-boom-10-largest-cryptocurrencies-8-today/), [4](https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/03/coinbase-adds-support-for-litecoin/), [5](http://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-users-can-now-buy-sell-litecoin/), [6](https://cointelegraph.com/news/litecoin-accounts-for-22-of-total-daily-cryptocurrency-trading-volume-segwit-effect), [7](https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/litecoin-goes-parabolic-30-reaches-market-cap-1-billion/)*



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