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Litecoin jumped to a nine-month high early Tuesday, replacing bitcoin cash as the seventh-largest cryptocurrency by market value.
The cryptocurrency rose to $ 75.77 during Asian trading hours, a level last seen on Feb.24, according to CoinDesk 20. Falling slightly to $ 74 at press time, litecoin is still up in the day. 9% on a 24 hour basis.
Litecoin now has a market cap of $ 4.90 billion, higher than that of bitcoin cash – which suffered a hard fork on Sunday – at $ 4.67 billion.
Once referred to as the silver for bitcoin gold, litecoin has lagged far behind the top cryptocurrency in recent years. Bitcoin’s market capitalization is now close to $ 310 billion, over 60 times greater.
Litecoin’s recovery from September lows near $ 40 picked up the pace on Oct.21 after online payment giant PayPal announced support for the cryptocurrency alongside bitcoin, ether, and bitcoin cash. Litecoin jumped more than 13% on the news, confirming a bullish pattern on the technical charts, and has been on offer ever since.
While litecoin has grown 80% this year, bitcoin has gained over 120%. The first ever cryptocurrency hit a 33-month high of $ 16,885 on Monday and was last seen at $ 16,700. Prices have risen more than $ 6,000 since the start of October, due to the investment boost from major companies.
The continuing rally in Bitcoin now appears to be dragging alternative cryptocurrencies in general. LINK by Chainlink and XLM by Stellar gained 5% on a 24-hour basis, while XRP was up 10%. Ether, the second largest cryptocurrency, was up more than 2% to $ 465. However, unlike litecoin and bitcoin, many of the top altcoins are yet to challenge their respective third-quarter highs.
