Litecoin has become the new king of cryptocurrency payments, as more users are increasingly adopting this popular digital currency over Bitcoin to execute transactions on the crypto payments platform, Bitpay.
Litecoin Surpasses Bitcoin In Crypto Payments
In a recent X (formerly Twitter) post, the Litecoin team announced that LTC has become the number one cryptocurrency for payments on BitPay. The team shared a pictorial chart showing the top seven most preferred crypto payment options on BitPay.
Litecoin led the pack, scoring an impressive 41.38% in Bitpay’s payment count, nearly doubling Bitcoin which was the second largest, at 21.55%. Ethereum and Dogecoin followed with 10.37% and 5.86% respectively, trailed by other cryptocurrencies including Polygon, Bitcoin Cash and Circle’s USDC.
The Litecoin team disclosed that LTC has been the number one crypto payment option for BitPay all year. The cryptocurrency’s rise to prominence may come as no surprise to some crypto enthusiasts, considering its faster transaction time and lower fees compared to Bitcoin.
According to CoinGecko, Litecoin outperforms Bitcoin in its lower transaction fees, with an average transaction cost of $0.04. Whereas, Bitcoin charges $7.60 on average.
BitPay also revealed that Litecoin boasts a maximum capacity of 56 transactions per second, significantly higher than Bitcoin’s capacity of about seven transactions per second.
The crypto payments platform disclosed that LTC uses a Scrypt algorithm, which is less resource-intensive compared to Bitcoin’s SHA-256 algorithm. This efficiency enables LTC to process transactions up to four times faster, with a new block created every 2.5 minutes, in contrast to Bitcoin’s 10 minutes per new block.
Earlier in 2023, BitPay published a blog post, highlighting the major differences between Litecoin and Bitcoin. The crypto payments provider revealed that the difference in algorithms between the two cryptocurrencies translates to a significantly faster transaction time for the Litecoin Network.
The payment platform also emphasized that Litecoin currently has a definite edge against Bitcoin due to being a “leaner, and faster version” of the pioneer cryptocurrency.
LTC’s Price Sees Modest Gains
Taking into account the price of Litecoin, Bitcoin maintains a stronger value, given its status as the world’s first cryptocurrency and its commanding market capitalization of more than $1.2 trillion.
However, at the time of writing, Bitcoin has witnessed a drop in its daily trading volume, decreasing by 4.39%. The cryptocurrency’s price is presently at $61,037, marking another 1.91% decline in its value over the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap.
Conversely, Litecoin is coincidentally up by the same amount, trading at a price of $81.75 and amassing modest gains of 1.91%, over the past 24 hours. The cryptocurrency’s trading volume has seen a 6.17% surge, totaling over $354 million.
LTC price continues to show strength amid BTC downtrend | Source: LTCUSDT on Tradingview.com
Featured image from CoinDesk, chart from Tradingview.com