Litecoin Price Prediction: LTC Price Dips After LitePay Launch Disappoints
Daily Litecoin News Update
It’s somewhat distressing that Litecoin is the only crypto in the top 10 that’s trading in red on Tuesday morning. We had anticipated the price drop, but not for the reason under discussion today. LTC prices have taken a plunge in the aftermath of a disappointing “LitePay” launch.
A fully-dedicated merchant processor for Litecoin, LitePay was due to be released on Monday. While it did release, we have to admit that the launch largely failed to impress us and investors alike.
For reference, the LitePay service was expected to serve the two ends of the payments spectrum: businesses on one end and consumers on the other.
For businesses, LitePay was expected to launch its processing service, allowing merchants to add support for LTC on their digital (and possibly, physical) checkout terminals. LitePay did deliver on that promise yesterday. The service for merchants has been rolled out, albeit only for online payments for now.
For consumers, LitePay promised to provide a secure wallet and a “Visa”-compatible debit card to make LTC-based payments as easy as pie. This is where LitePay failed to deliver on its promises.
Without an early heads up, LitePay revealed on launch day that “hostile actions by card issuers towards crypto companies” forced the company to reconsider launching the card. (Source: “LitePay Release Date for Card Is Delayed Until Further Notice,” MarketMogul, February 26, 2018.)
However, LitePay didn’t rule out the future possibility of Litecoin debit cards, saying that registrations for debit cards will open once the company is in a position to provide a reliable card service.
The counter-assurance provided by LitePay, however, failed to reassure investors, many of whom had been looking forward to seeing the first-of-their-kind Litecoin debit cards.
This explains the slump in LTC prices on Tuesday morning, whereby the LTC to USD rate has dipped by over 3.5%, while the BTC to USD rate has dropped nearly 10%. And yet, we’re looking at the bright side of the picture, which looks something like this.
Chart courtesy of TradingView.com
Despite the slump on Tuesday, Litecoin is still a better-performing crypto this week than bellwether crypto Bitcoin.
As for LitePay, the service has, in fact, managed to furnish a processing service for merchants, which is more crucial to Litecoin’s success than a card. After all, if there are no businesses accepting LTC for payments, where would consumers use the cards?
Analyst Take
The failure to roll out its service in full, as it had promised, reflects poorly on LitePay. But we must acknowledge that the company had little to no power in this matter.
Digital currencies pose a threat to fiat currency-based payment processors like Visa. Likewise, it makes little sense for them to support cryptos fraught with price volatility.
Nonetheless, the prospect of a debit card is still on the table, which may eventually make sense once enough merchants sign up for LTC adoption.
We don’t see that happening overnight but we certainly remain firm in our belief that Litecoin will eventually see mainstream adoption. This is why this momentary hiccup doesn’t budge our Litecoin price prediction for 2018, which targets an LTC price of $400.00.
