When a cryptocurrency catches up with a rival in terms of transactions it could be a sign of greater adoption, or maybe not. Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash have been duking it out over the past few months coming ever closer until the inevitable happened. Yesterday BCH caught up with LTC with number of daily blockchain transactions.
According to Bitinfocharts Litecoin has been on a slow downtrend since the beginning of the year with fewer transactions per day. Its last spike was 225k transactions on January 4 when price was also heading over $300. Bitcoin Cash only surpassed LTC once in the past three months on January 14 when it reached 110k transactions.
Litecoin has been above Bitcoin Cash since mid-January by almost double though the two have been slowly coming together. Yesterday BCH transactions reached around 38.5k whereas Litecoin recorded 37.5k. There have been a number of smaller spikes in the transaction numbers for both altcoins so it has yet to be determined whether this is a long term change in trends or just another spike.
Litecoin did not get the boost it expected from the launch of LitePay which was supposed to bring the altcoin to the masses with easy credit card payments. This never happened and only the merchant component of the service was rolled out. As a result LTC has failed to maintain its first upward spurt since early December and has started to slide back towards $200.
Bitcoin Cash has also been on a downward slide since mid-December and it has lost almost 70% of its value since its all-time high of just over $4,000. Its transaction chart looks far more linear than Litecoin’s which rises and falls with natural usage of the asset. Litecoin forefather Charlie Lee has already made a number of comments about a ‘flappening’ in which the LTC market capacity surpasses BCH.
At the moment this doesn’t look likely as they have both maintained a steady gap for a couple of weeks now. Bitcoin Cash remains the fourth most popular cryptocurrency with $21 billion while Litecoin, only one place behind it, has almost half at $11 billion. It will need an almighty announcement or partnership to boost levels enough to overtake BCH in the short term.
Over a longer period it seems more likely if BCH loses its appeal due to more Segwit and Lightning Network adoption for its big brother BTC. The race goes on in the cryptodrome.
