Litecoin Prices Surge Above $70 As Crypto Market Tops $175 Billion (coindesk.com)

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Litecoin Prices Surge Above $70 As Crypto Market Tops $175 Billion (coindesk.com)

Posted by BeauHD on Friday September 1, 2017 @09:30AM from the steady-as-she-goes dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CoinDesk: The cryptocurrency markets continued to rise today as the asset class observed strong gains, including most notably, perhaps, litecoin. The digital asset once dubbed "the silver to bitcoin's gold" passed $78 to achieve a new all-time high at 06:54 UTC this morning, according to CoinMarketCap data. Standing at $75.57 at press time, litecoin has increased by 17.28 percent over the past 24 hours and an astonishing 49.37 percent over the last week. Long in the doldrums, litecoin has seen a resurgence since its community moved to activate Segregated Witness (SegWit) on its network early in May -- a scaling solution that also opens the door to new features such as smart contracts going forward. Taking a wider view, the combined market capitalization of all digital currencies attained a new record high today, and had passed $175 billion at press time. That's up from $170.8 billion just yesterday, also going by data from CoinMarketCap.

67 comments

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

It's a bubble by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 09:36 · Score: 1, Insightful

Get out while you can. This is a bubble that is going to collapse. There is no underlying justification for the rapid increase in cryptocurrency valuations. If you have bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies, sell while they are valued this high and get out while you can.
1. Re: It's a bubble by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 09:52 · Score: 1
  
  Indeed, cryptocurrency is stupid.
  But I'm bullish on stupidity.
  The litecoin I bought a week ago is up 80%. Not so with my diversified portfolio of mutual funds.
  Now to get my hands on some Ripple.
2. Re:It's a bubble by ShanghaiBill · 2017-09-01 10:09 · Score: 1
  
  Get out while you can. This is a bubble that is going to collapse.
  People were saying that when Bitcoin hit $1. It is now $4857.
  Broken clocks are right twice a day, so that is proof that Bitcoin naysayers have room for improvement.
3. Re: It's a bubble by DontBeAMoran · 2017-09-01 10:18 · Score: 1
  
  Grab a few thousand Dogecoin too, just in case.
  
  --
  #DeleteFacebook
4. Re: It's a bubble by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 10:21 · Score: 0
  
  Its a market, and for better or for worse there is a lot of real money tied up in it now (even if some 'fake').
  And in that market so far I have between booms and busts, shorts and longs, overall made a profit.
  To the tune of 466% in 3 months.
  Total cryptos market cap only went up 190% in that time frame.
5. Re:It's a bubble by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 10:26 · Score: 0
  
  Get out while you can. This is a bubble that is going to collapse.
  People were saying that when Bitcoin hit $1. It is now $4857.
  Broken clocks are right twice a day, so that is proof that Bitcoin naysayers have room for improvement.
  Broken doesn't necessarily have to mean stopped. A broken clock might only be right twice a year, or maybe 10 times a day. It all depends on how it is broken.
6. Re:It's a bubble by ShanghaiBill · 2017-09-01 10:50 · Score: 1
  
  A broken clock might only be right twice a year
  That would still be an improvement over the Bitcoin critics. Most of them are just pissed because they were too smug and cynical to cash in on the opportunity of a lifetime, and don't want to admit they were wrong.
  Now please excuse me while I go sell a few coins and pay off my mortgage ...
7. Re:It's a bubble by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 11:04 · Score: 0
  
  "pay off my mortgage" one would have thought you'd have done that already. just goes to show that lying takes no skill.
8. Re:It's a bubble by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 11:05 · Score: 0
  
  Lambos for all!
9. Re:It's a bubble by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 11:16 · Score: 0
  
  $5,500ish if you include the value of the 'free' "Bitcoin Cash" from the fork a month ago.
10. Re:It's a bubble by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 11:34 · Score: 0
  
  Don't feel bad, I felt like an ass too for not hopping on the bandwagon and buying a billion internet monies when this shit was worthless.
11. Re: It's a bubble by Holi · 2017-09-01 11:59 · Score: 1
  
  As is Ethereum though not as much, the nice part is it mines by video card only, no asics to compete with. granted it's not much but it drops about .05 eth into my wallet every 5 days or so, that's about $15.
  
  --
  Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
12. Re: It's a bubble by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 12:12 · Score: 0
  
  OP here. You're basically dismissing any criticism or concern about bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies as the result of people who are upset that they didn't buy in at a lower valuation. That's ridiculous. It conflates concerns about cryptocurrency bubbles with those who would say they can't work at all.
  There's been a rapid increase in the value if cryptocurrencies without any clear underlying reason to support the increases. That looks a lot like a bubble to me, where people are buying cryptocurrencies because they have rapidly increased in value with the assumption that they will continue to do so, but without am underlying reason to support the increased value. It's a bit like internet stocks in the late 1990s when companies that weren't anywhere close to breaking even had huge IPOs and rapid increases in stock prices. Eventually the market corrects for the overvaluing of the assets.
  Think about it like this. If you bought in when bitcoins had a value of $1, even if the price drops dramatically, you probably still come out ahead. On the other hand, if you bought in at a value of $3,000 and there's a large correction, you probably lose a lot in the short term. If you need to exchange those assets in the short term, you've lost a lot. If you're willing to wait out the recovery, you might come out ahead eventually. However, the recovery is likely to take longer if the bubble is larger. It's risky and perhaps it's better to get out before the market corrects. I think cryptocurrencies can work, but unless you bought in very early, owning them at their value seems extremely risky right now.
13. Re:It's a bubble by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 13:34 · Score: 0
  
  Or zero times, if it's broken due to the hands being missing.
14. Re: It's a bubble by ShanghaiBill · 2017-09-01 14:53 · Score: 1
  
  There's been a rapid increase in the value if cryptocurrencies without any clear underlying reason to support the increases.
  There is no clear underlying reason for ANY price. Bitcoins have no inherent value. A bubble in stock prices can be seen when valuations are out of whack with P/Es. A bubble in real estate can be seen when valuations are far above rental revenues. Even a bubble in gold is apparent when the valuation rises far above the cost of mining, since gold mining can be expanded without any inherent limits. None of these apply to cryptocurrencies. Even the cost of mining them is not a good measure, since there is only a limited number to mine. They may be mined sooner if the price goes up, but that just means there will be even fewer mined later on.
  So $4857 is just as reasonable as $1.
15. Re:It's a bubble by Frank+Burly · 2017-09-01 15:14 · Score: 1
  
  The bottom may fall out soon, because I am the kiss of death and I am thinking about throwing some money in.
  It is certainly true that markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent, but they can also remain irrational longer than I am content to be skeptical.
  I am willing to bet on our Cheeto Caligula bringing about some sort of crisis that will cause crypto currencies to become an appealing hedge for larger and smarter investors than I am.
  That will be the moment when—years later—I will wish I had sold.
16. Re:It's a bubble by Applehu+Akbar · 2017-09-01 15:24 · Score: 2
  
  People were saying that when Bitcoin hit $1. It is now $4857.
  I have heard this specific argument used at the top of every bubble. This doesn't 'prove' anything about cryptocurrency in oarticular; it's just another line item in the Is This A Bubble checklist.
  Another line item on the checklist: when the price of most successful example of a bubbly idea goes ludicrous, a host of low-budget imitators swarm onto the market. Dogecoin, Etherium, the other 900 cryptocurrencies (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cryptocurrencies).
  Meanwhile Bitcoin has gone plaid by splitting into three large pieces, any of which could be a Chicxulub-sized whack to Earth's economies if they hit the ground.
17. Re: It's a bubble by SScorpio · 2017-09-02 01:04 · Score: 1
  
  OK, I now have $3.50 of Doge, time to hodl.
18. Re: It's a bubble by WrongMonkey · 2017-09-02 02:54 · Score: 1
  
  The litecoin I bought a week ago is up 80%.
  
  A lot of people who invested with Charles Ponzi or Bernie Madoff had their accounts go up in value, too. But until you actually cashout, you haven't make a dime.
19. Re: It's a bubble by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-02 10:35 · Score: 0
  
  Stupid. Go learn. Ripple is as useless as fiat in terms of sustainable value. Litecoin in the other hand ..
A lot of it is fake money. by Bitfinexed · 2017-09-01 09:40 · Score: 4, Interesting

There's a significant amount of wash trading and fake money pumping up the prices of cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin. A marketcap of 175 billion doesn't mean people bought 175 billion worth of cryptos. With 10 million dollars you can increase the market cap of Bitcoin by over 2 billion dollars, and we have at least 320 million dollars of fake money. https://medium.com/@bitfinexed...
1. Re: A lot of it is fake money. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 10:14 · Score: 0
  
  So how does that track with crypto deposites?
2. Re:A lot of it is fake money. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 10:47 · Score: 1
  
  You do understand what market cap means, right? It's the price of one share, times the number of shares. (It means the same thing whether "share" is a stock or a coin).
  So when we say the market cap of Apple is almost a trillion dollars, we know that people didn't spend a trillion dollars on the stock! It means the price went up due to high demand, and therefore the market cap is higher.
  The thing "pumping up the price" is a bunch of people buying the coins recently. In other words, high demand.
  We can argue all you want about whether the demand itself is justified or simply speculation, but let's agree on definitions before we argue.
3. Re:A lot of it is fake money. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 12:23 · Score: 1
  
  not quite, it is a result of low supply, low volume of transactions and lack of sellers. this allows relatively small purchases to have exponentially large effect on the value. This will keep happening only as long as that trend continues, should supply/demand plateau then expect a resulting significant crash to readjust the price.
Money Is Money by UrbanMonk · 2017-09-01 09:47 · Score: 1

A car is a car, a house a house, a horse is a horse (of course), art is art and money is money. The concept of money is real, and which ever commodity comes closest to the concept of Money we be used as the standard. Bitcoin is fungible and people with assets will continue to facilitate trading using which ever "money is available", even if they have to create their own currency. Burger King will have their WhopperCoin and people like you and me will have to EARN WhopperCoins to BUY whoppers. That is the intrinsic value of all the cryptocurrencies.
1. Re:Money Is Money by nnet · 2017-09-01 10:09 · Score: 1
  
  ahh rewards points.
2. Re:Money Is Money by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 17:42 · Score: 0
  
  So we'll have a different currency for every firm we want to do business with? Boy, that sure sounds like a winner to me.
The worst thing you can do by istartedi · 2017-09-01 09:56 · Score: 3, Insightful

The best thing you can do with stuff like this is to take a once-in a lifetime profit. The 2nd best thing you can do is stay out. The worst thing you can do is hem and haw for months and then finally decide to go in big.
I can't tell you when this tide will turn; but I can virtually guarantee that the media will be interviewing somebody sobbing over how much they lost. That person will be a latecomer. Don't be that guy.
The people that are positioned to take a huge profit already believed in this stuff. If you are trying to convince yourself that this is the pony to pick, you're in serious danger of being that guy.
I saw this with the last silver run. There was a guy who put his life saving in silver days before it crashed. He was that guy. Every market does that. Don't be that guy. But I guarantee, somebody will be that guy.

--
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
1. Re: The worst thing you can do by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 10:21 · Score: 0
  
  Dont worry, even when it looses 75-90% value, it'll manage to do a 30x afterwards. Bitcoin to 30k in 2022
2. Re:The worst thing you can do by DontBeAMoran · 2017-09-01 10:22 · Score: 1
  
  It depends. Given the price of Ripple and Dogecoin right now, you can still buy hundreds or thousands of coins without investing much money. If you're going to buy "meme" crypto-currency, might as well buy USD$21.32 worth of Dogecoin, that's enough for over 9000 coins.
  
  --
  #DeleteFacebook
3. Re:The worst thing you can do by King_TJ · 2017-09-01 10:42 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah ... but as long as I can remember, people were writing off most of the alt-coins as "me too" currencies, often only created by someone for purposes of pump and dump schemes or at least an ability to get in at the bottom (after pre-mining some undetermined amount of it for themselves), to ensure it makes the developer a few bucks.
  I think that's where Dogecoin and others like it fall, really.
  Litecoin, by contrast, had long been viewed as the only other crypto-coin with a chance of some real adoption, other than bitcoin. You actually had retailers you could pay in LTC for things. And if nothing else, it had the advantage of more familiarity because more people gave GPU mining it an honest try once bitcoin's cost to mine went through the roof. (They had really handy distros to image onto USB sticks to make instant LTC mining rigs and so on.)
4. Re:The worst thing you can do by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 10:58 · Score: 0
  
  LTC went through a long period of development stall bordering on abandonment. Ironically, the politics in BTC saved it.
  The creator wanted to add Segwit to LTC to prove that it was safe. Segwit on LTC was essentially solving a non-existing problem for the coin.
  That was reason enough for the first round of pump to $38.
  Then the creator saw $$$$ like Vitalik and ETH and decided to leave his day job to go dev full time on it.
5. Re:The worst thing you can do by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 11:28 · Score: 0
  
  Its like a gold rush, by the time most people hear about it, its too late, the easy stuff is gone.
  I only put what I can afford to lose into it, and usually wait for a drop. The value seems to race up "bubble", then it resets back a bit to a new "normal" and plods along for a while, then there is another "bubble", then it resets back to a new higher "normal" again.
  Like anything its a gamble and a risk, and anyone that ploughs money into it they cant afford to lose is silly.
  And hindsight is fantastic, if only I had of jumped in 3 or 4 years ago when BT was around $200, didn't have money I could afford to lose at the time, so I stayed out. Only recently I've had some spare cash and spread it over BT, Eth and LT a few months ago, and for a while I had "lost money" on it because prices went down, but I'm in it for the long term, not a quick gain, I'm taking a risk on it being worth many times more in 10 to 20 years from now, but only with what I can afford to lose, or with money I might other wise spend on toys or "nice to haves" that otherwise lose value over time.
  Like all markets they go bang every so often, those that get in at the end lose, or have to ride it out.
6. Re:The worst thing you can do by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 11:37 · Score: 0
  
  Your mom got paid 50 BBC last night.
7. Re:The worst thing you can do by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 11:52 · Score: 0
  
  "The best thing you can do with stuff like this is to take a once-in a lifetime profit."
  
  While it remains profitable I will continue to grow my $100 seed money by trading between litecoin and ethereum. As long as I withdraw more then $100 I'll take the win. Right now I'm comfortable with it.
  
  Do I believe it has any value, intrinsic or otherwise? Absolutely not, but so far the odds are better then the lottery.
8. Re:The worst thing you can do by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 12:02 · Score: 0
  
  No, the best thing is take advantage of a thrice in a lifetime profit!
  I unfortunately only got to partake in 2/3.
9. Re: The worst thing you can do by gravewax · 2017-09-01 12:28 · Score: 1
  
  with the amount of alternative crypto currencies that don't have the fundamental technical flawes of bitcoin I doubt bitcoin would ever recover from another large scale crash. The previous one they were lucky that none of the alternatives were mainstream enough yet, that is no longer the case.
10. Re: The worst thing you can do by mikael · 2017-09-01 13:18 · Score: 1
  
  The problem is that you have to buy bitcoins to buy those currencies, because the exchange traders only deal with bitcoins.
  
  --
  Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
11. Re: The worst thing you can do by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 13:28 · Score: 0
  
  that simply isn't true, they nearly all accept fiat currency. I bought my litecoin and etherium with USD.
12. Re: The worst thing you can do by Holi · 2017-09-01 13:36 · Score: 1
  
  Not true at all. You can easily buy Litecoin and Ethereum on most major brokerages, probably several other crypto-currencies as well. Ethereum you can mine with a decent video card, no asics for that.
  
  --
  Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
13. Re: The worst thing you can do by gravewax · 2017-09-01 13:58 · Score: 1
  
  damn I better get the exchange to give me back my money as apparently I was supposed to pay with bitcoins and not cash. I am sure they will be as surprised as I am!
14. Re:The worst thing you can do by No.+24601 · 2017-09-01 14:16 · Score: 1
  
  ...said someone in 1890. In Manhattan. About the real estate market.
  You could be right, and you probably are, but only with respect to, at most, the medium-term.
15. Re: The worst thing you can do by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 17:40 · Score: 0
  
  Note that when a cryptocurrency nutter says "fiat currency" he is referring to what normal people call "real money", or even just "money".
16. Re: The worst thing you can do by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 18:02 · Score: 0
  
  Note when an AC tries to be funny they usually come across as a pretentious cunt
17. Re: The worst thing you can do by gravewax · 2017-09-01 18:06 · Score: 1
  
  The term fiat currency existed long before Cryptocurrency and has been in general use for centuries. Perhaps you should try investing in an education.
18. Re:The worst thing you can do by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 18:14 · Score: 0
  
  The British Broadcasting Co. have their own altcoin now? Who knew?
19. Re:The worst thing you can do by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-02 06:56 · Score: 0
  
  So kind of like a Ponzi scheme, then
20. Re:The worst thing you can do by Gussington · 2017-09-03 16:23 · Score: 1
  
  I can't tell you when this tide will turn; but I can virtually guarantee that the media will be interviewing somebody sobbing over how much they lost. That person will be a latecomer. Don't be that guy.
  Sure but the news will also show you somebody sobbing over how much they missed out because they didn't get in fast enough. That guy is also a loser.
  So do you sob over missing out, or sob over getting stuck with a lemon?
This thread will be entertaining. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 10:00 · Score: 0

Wonder if I can come up with a system to measure levels of butthurtedness. Seems to have been an increasing trend with articles concerning cryptocurrenties every since 2010.
1. Re: This thread will be entertaining. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 10:31 · Score: 0
  
  Not sure how to measure it directly. Idea: "ButtHurtCoin" to create a market for that.
2. Re: This thread will be entertaining. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 10:46 · Score: 0
  
  Hmmm interesting idea.
pretend moneyz 1849 by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 10:07 · Score: 0

Miner miner forty-niner. 1849. All over again.
Long term gain does not negate bubbles by perpenso · 2017-09-01 10:57 · Score: 1

People were saying that when Bitcoin hit $1. It is now $4857.
Long term gain does not negate bubbles. The people who waited for the 2013 $1,000 bubble to pop and bought at $250 in 2015 have 4x the wealth of those who bought at the 2013 bubble and waited for the long term to bail them out.

Today's $5K spike looks very much like 2013's $1K spike. Very bubble'ish.
1. Re:Long term gain does not negate bubbles by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 11:21 · Score: 0
  
  The $5K spike is only the beginning, the run up to $3k is akin to the run up to $160 before the $1k runup.
A gridseed ASIC might be economical again by perpenso · 2017-09-01 11:03 · Score: 1

Litecoin's verification is faster than bitcoin's. Making it more practical, in theory, for immediate transactions, say a cup of coffee.

The GPU theory didn't work out so well for litecoin. Like bitcoin, it too went ASIC. Although at the current price/difficulty a circa 2014 gridseed ASIC might be economical again. :-)
1. Re:A gridseed ASIC might be economical again by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 13:48 · Score: 0
  
  If you want to mine using a GPU then you want to look at Ethereum.
Tulips, 1637 by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 11:04 · Score: 0

Tulips, 1637
1. Re:Tulips, 1637 by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 11:12 · Score: 0
  
  Those fools from Holland were amateurs:
  https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/20/bitcoin-bubble-dwarfs-tulip-mania-from-400-years-ago-elliott-wave.html
  Top of this wave will be 20k+
2. Re:Tulips, 1637 by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 15:20 · Score: 0
  
  Well, computers make everything better
Repost of 2 weeks back, sorry by AbRASiON · 2017-09-01 16:39 · Score: 2

Explains why some of this is going on.
Here's some data which essentially completely confirms a lot of it is money laundering.
News from late Nov 2016
https://www.google.com.au/sear...
Reaction to said news (click 1 year on the chart)
https://www.worldcoinindex.com...
.
.
.
Now, see this news also, Feb 2017
https://www.google.com.au/sear...
See the reaction in other digital currrency markets (again, click the 1Y chart)
https://www.worldcoinindex.com...
https://www.worldcoinindex.com...
Now, finally look at your local property prices, especially if you live in Vancouver, Toronto, London, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland.
Any way money can be gotten out of China, it will be by the wealthy / ultra wealthy. The change to my city in the past 5 years, is .nothing. short of utterly astounding. I repeat, *utterly astounding*, to the complete and utter detriment of the locals under 40 / 50 who don't own a place, they're boned. no chance now.
*
Regarding litecoin, this one is .particularly. telling, that coin was the "b tier" coin to bitcoin, the silver to gold if you will. Like bitcoin, it had a big run several years ago and then, it died off to a stagnant level, logically so too, why should there even be more than 1 digital currency?
So here's a coin which has settled to a flat, sensible price, then due to talk of China making some moves against BTC exchanges in Feb 2017, is suddenly .booming.insanely. in Mar 2017.
Most of the world buy their goods from there, we're sending our money to China en-masse, immense amounts of it, the wealthy there, are in turn getting out of the country and picking up the premium property around the world. Can't blame them to be honest, devastating for some of the locals though (myself included)
Bonus evidence of how it's being spent, here, just found this morning.
http://i.imgur.com/aTGE6SV.gif
1. Re:Repost of 2 weeks back, sorry by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 18:03 · Score: 0
  
  ...Most of the world buy their goods from there, we're sending our money to China en-masse, immense amounts of it, the wealthy there, are in turn getting out of the country and picking up the premium property around the world.
  Most of the money leaving China is the result of graft by government/Party functionaries or those taking advantage of their connections with same.
  This is the actual reason why most of those folks are in such a hurry to get their money and themselves out of China. The ones who've made their dosh legitimately are under no such compulsion.
  -Z.
  posting anon because I've moderated in this thread
2. Re:Repost of 2 weeks back, sorry by DNS-and-BIND · 2017-09-02 05:45 · Score: 0
  
  Where'd you get the idea that you locals "deserve" to buy the property in your jurisdiction? Where did that idea even come from? Property is on sale to the highest bidder, whoever that might be. I detect the distinct stench of an alt-right racist in your post. Chinese can buy whatever they like. F off, and may people like you fail to breed the next generation of your kind.
  
  --
  Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
3. Re:Repost of 2 weeks back, sorry by Gussington · 2017-09-03 16:19 · Score: 1
  
  , logically so too, why should there even be more than 1 digital currency?
  Why should there be more than one model of car?
  Why is there more than one brand of rice?
SchruteCoin by TexasTroy · 2017-09-01 17:09 · Score: 1

Where can I buy me some SchruteCoin? I have a big bag of Stanley Nickels to buy them with.
Can't we go back by thegarbz · 2017-09-01 20:11 · Score: 1

to daily bitcoin articles? At least we knew where we stood with bitcoin articles, unlike this {$ALTCOINNAME}coin garbage that no one can keep track of.
All of it is fake money. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-02 08:16 · Score: 0

FTFY