• Advertise
  • Submit a Press Release
  • About Us
NewsBTC
Bitcoin & cryptocurrency news
Crypto.com Logo
  • News
    • Bitcoin
    • Ethereum
    • Cardano
    • Dogecoin
    • Ripple
    • DeFi
    • NFT
    • Sponsored
    • Press Releases
    • Research
  • Analysis
    • Bitcoin (BTC)
    • Ethereum (ETH)
    • Cardano (ADA)
    • Chainlink (LINK)
    • Litecoin (LTC)
    • Tezos (XTZ)
    • Zcash (ZEC)
    • EOS
    • YearnFinance (YFI)
  • Learn
    • Trading Course
  • Directory
    • Crypto Businesses
    • Bitcoin Brokers
    • Casinos
    • Sportsbooks
    • Categories
  • Events
  • Play GamesTry
  • Play Casino GamesTry
  • Play FinanceTry
  • Claim 7 BTCTry
No Result
View All Result
Breaking News: Bitfinex And Crypto Bank OrionX Forged Partnership To Broaden Presence In Latin America
  • News
    • Bitcoin
    • Ethereum
    • Cardano
    • Dogecoin
    • Ripple
    • DeFi
    • NFT
    • Sponsored
    • Press Releases
    • Research
  • Analysis
    • Bitcoin (BTC)
    • Ethereum (ETH)
    • Cardano (ADA)
    • Chainlink (LINK)
    • Litecoin (LTC)
    • Tezos (XTZ)
    • Zcash (ZEC)
    • EOS
    • YearnFinance (YFI)
  • Learn
    • Trading Course
  • Directory
    • Crypto Businesses
    • Bitcoin Brokers
    • Casinos
    • Sportsbooks
    • Categories
  • Events
  • Play GamesTry
  • Play Casino GamesTry
  • Play FinanceTry
  • Claim 7 BTCTry
No Result
View All Result
Bitcoin News
No Result
View All Result
Breaking News: Bitfinex And Crypto Bank OrionX Forged Partnership To Broaden Presence In Latin America
Charlie Lee, a Litecoin coin

Charlie Lee Sums Up Litecoin’s 10 Years History. Part Two: Exchanges + Betrayal

Eduardo Próspero by Eduardo Próspero
2 years ago
in Litecoin
Reading Time: 5 mins read

The creator of Litecoin, Charlie Lee, continues to guide us through memory lane. For part one, he took us through Litecoin’s fair launch. Considering the small number of projects that have managed to do that, it was a pretty big achievement. Today, for part two, we’re going to cover the project’s relation with cryptocurrency exchanges. Charlie Lee wears his heart on his sleeve for this one, and tells a heartfelt story that ends up in betrayal. Can you feel the excitement in the air?

Related Reading | Charlie Lee Predicts Resurgence of Litecoin as Bitcoin Cash Falters

This part of the story is all about relationships, connections, and the long road to credibility. It’s also about Charlie Lee’s resistance and willpower.

Before we get into the meat and potatoes of the story, though, a light detail that shouldn’t go unnoticed.

Charlie Lee Gives Flowers To The Litecoin Logo Creators

There’s not much story to the logos, but it’s cool that Lee gives credit where credit is due. The first and the second one show evolution:

The second logo was designed by @mjbmetals. I still like that quite a lot. It looks well next to that Bitcoin logo.https://t.co/T5hzEldonI pic.twitter.com/Uy5qpl8JUP

— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 7, 2021

And the final one is a simplification of the second one:

And the current logo is designed by Robbie Coleman (@robertfcoleman) and his team.

Of course being decentralized, there are many other logos that people have created and used. Some are pretty wacky. And people can use whatever logo they want and I can't do anything about it. ? pic.twitter.com/M7FgBcGPum

— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 7, 2021

That being said, let’s get back to the story.

LTCUSD price chart for 10/09/2021 - TradingView

LTC price chart for 10/09/2021 on Coinbase | Source: LTC/USD on TradingView.com

Litecoin’s Long Hard Road To Exchange Listings

This contradicts the title, but, in 2011 Litecoin was immediately listed in the now-defunct BTC-e. The site was a pretty successful cryptocurrency exchange that fell into disgrace when the US Justice Department accused them of laundering funds from the Mt. Gox hack, but that’s another story. Regarding Litecoin, Charlie Lee tells us that the listing, “helped a lot as miners had access to liquidity pretty quickly. Litecoin quickly become one of the most popular coin on BTC-e.”

From 2011 to 2013, I spent a lot of time supporting Litecoin's early growth and pushed for adoption wherever I can. I pretty much talked to all the exchanges to support LTC. I realized that liquidity is super important for a coin. Without liquidity, you can't do anything.

— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 7, 2021

However, even though Lee “pretty much talked to all the exchanges to support LTC,” it was two years later that the second one listed Litecoin. Bitfinex took a chance on the nascent project, “This was a huge deal for Litecoin. It’s the first major exchange to support LTC.”

At the Bitcoin 2013 conference, I remember attending a talk by Bitstamp Co-Founder and CEO Nejc Kodrič( @nejc_kodric). During the Q&A after the talk, I asked him if Bitstamp will add Litecoin. I think he just chuckled and went to the next question.

— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 7, 2021

Then, Charlie Lee remember how he tried to get the CEO of Bitstamp to list them and he ignored him. Only to list the coin in 2017. The same thing happened with BitPay. That company ended up supporting Litecoin only this year. 

The Chinese exchanges, though, listed Litecoin from the beginning. “Sometime late 2012 to early 2013, 2 of the largest exchanges in China, Okcoin and Huobi, added support for LTC. That was huge.” A question arises, did Charlie Lee have to throw shade at those two exchanges this hard? “The trading volume was also pretty crazy, but unclear how much of that was fabricated.”

In 2013, I thought it was time for me to step away from Litecoin. I was very fortunate to find Warren Togami (@wtogami), Founder of the Fedora Project, to take over as Litecoin lead developer. Warren is amazing and we were very lucky to have him at the helm of development.

— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 7, 2021

Charlie Lee And Coinbase, A Love Story

So, in 2013 Charlie Lee steps down as Litecoin’s lead developer and leaves the job to Warren Togami. At the same time, he leaves a high-paying job at Google because they weren’t interested in anything crypto-related. That’s when Coinbase gets into the picture. Lee contacts them to see if they’re interested in listing Litecoin and they end up hiring him instead.

I interviewed at Coinbase and on paper, it sounded like a horrible deal. I would have to commute to SF, which was an hour each way, take a 50% or so pay cut, work twice as hard, and miss out on all the Google perks. But it was a no-brainer for me.

— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 8, 2021

According to Charlie Lee, “Coinbase was the hot startup and THE crypto company that is making Bitcoin easy to use. I knew that if Bitcoin didn’t succeed, Litecoin wasn’t going anywhere either.” A cold hard truth that all of the Altcoins have to live with to this day. Besides that, Lee wanted to eventually convince Coinbase to support Litecoin. How could he not?

But at least he created a cool banner for it. ?https://t.co/7BToh7YNdX

After that, there were rumors of @MtGox finally adding its second coin, Litecoin. At the time MtGox had like 97% of the total Bitcoin trading volume. Support of LTC would be huge for Litecoin's liquidity. pic.twitter.com/rfBhA7z1Pm

— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 8, 2021

The Chinese connection paid off and the BTC China, lead by Charlie Lee’s brother, listed the coin. “Although it was a huge news, what took him so long?!,” asks Lee hilariously. Also notice that the banner that he mentions plays on the fact that Charlie and Bobby are brothers. 

In 2015, there were rumors that the infamous Mt. Gox exchange was going to list Litecoin. At the time, this was THE place to be. Charlie Lee finally confirms the story, “The rumors were actually true. I was talking to the CEO, Mark Karpelès almost on a daily basis in mid 2015.” However, the Mt. Gox hack was exposed before they materialized those plans. And all hell broke loose. “In hindsight, it was a blessing in disguise.”

Then, as it happens, things turned sour in the Charlie Lee and Coinbase romance.

That changed though in 2016. The was when Litecoin trade volume exploded on Chinese exchanges and it was clear to me that Coinbase was leaving a lot of money on the table by not supporting altcoins. And it made business sense for Coinbase to add altcoins.

— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 8, 2021

The Brian Armstrong tweet he refers to says: “Ripple, Stellar, and Altcoins are all a distraction. Bitcoin is way too far ahead. We should be focused on bitcoin and sidechains.” Wow. What would the Brian Armstrong of the present say about that statement?

Anyway, in 2016 Litecoin’s trading volume was exploding in the Chinese exchanges and Charlie Lee saw his opportunity. “This was also when Ethereum was starting to get big. So I put together a proposal to Brian and Fred Ehrsam to add both LTC and ETH to Coinbase.” The proposal’s thesis was that, since people in the US had no easy way to buy, store, and trade those coins, there was “a lot of unsatisfied demand.” And Coinbase could make a lot of money. 

There was a lot of unsatisfied demand. People in the US had no easy way to store and trade these coins. And Coinbase would steal a lion share of the demand if we added the 2 coins to start.

Both Brian and Fred like the idea but they crossed out LTC. They just want to do ETH.

— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 8, 2021

Here it is: betrayal. The two Coinbase executives broke Charlie Lee’s heart by accepting the proposal, but only for Ethereum. “Although I went along with the plan, it kind of rubbed me the wrong way. Litecoin had a much higher global trade volume at the time and was the #2 coin in marketcap.” A little while later, Lee took three months of Coinbase to focus on his project.

Related Reading | CHARLIE LEE: AN UNCOMMON INTERVIEW

In the next episode, Litecoin’s story intertwines with Bitcoin’s and the controversial Segwit implementation. We’re going to discover that Charlie Lee and his team were instrumental in this. How? Tune in to find out. 

 

Featured Image by Executium on Unsplash - Charts by TradingView
Tags: Altcoin’s PrehistoryAltcoins archeologyAltcoins historybitstampBobby Leebrian armstrongBTC Chinacharlie leecoinbaseethereumhuobiLitecoinLitecoin historymark karpelesmt. goxokcoinThe oral history of LitecoinWarren Togami
Tweet123Share196ShareSend
Eduardo Próspero

Eduardo Próspero

Eduardo Prospero is an author, a content writer, and a professional rapper. A Bitcoin maximalist in disguise. Working on a Bitcoin book. Venezuelan. He wrote a novel, but it's only available in Spanish. It's called "La Tormenta."

Related Posts

Litecoin

Litecoin Breaks $95 As Whale Transactions Spike

3 days ago
litecoin

Litecoin Attempts To Revitalize The Crypto Market With Bullish Breakout

4 days ago
Litecoin (LTC)

Litecoin (LTC) Remains Red Despite Surge In Network Ahead Of Halving

5 days ago
Litecoin Bear

Litecoin’s MVRV Has Surged, Why This Is Bearish

2 weeks ago
Litecoin

Litecoin Surpasses $90, But This Level Remains Crucial For The Altcoin

2 weeks ago
litecoin undervalued crypto bitcoin ethereum

Why Litecoin Is The Most Undervalued Asset in Crypto

3 weeks ago

Premium Partners

Play Finance

Now Trending

  • Potential 20x+ Crypto Presales 2023

    5 days ago
  • Willing to buy new crypto: Here are the best 10...

    5 days ago
  • Best Crypto Meme Coin Presales in 2023

    5 days ago

Top Casinos

BitStarz

BitStarz

Review · Visit
Punt Casino

Punt Casino

Review · Visit
Trust Dice

Trust Dice

Review · Visit
mBit

mBit

Review · Visit

Sportsbooks

1xBit

1xBit

Review · Visit

Press Releases

  • Veteran Traders Are Thinking Beyond BTC and ETH to Navigate...

    1 hour ago
  • Sphere Financial Inc: Transforming the World of Finance...

    15 hours ago
  • As Pepe (PEPE) Hype Becomes History, DigiToads (TOADS)...

    18 hours ago
  • InQubeta (QUBE) Could Overtake Aave (AAVE) in Market Cap...

    18 hours ago
  • AI Analytics: SingularityNET, Ripple, and The Sandbox Top...

    19 hours ago

About Us

NewsBTC is a cryptocurrency news service that covers bitcoin news today, technical analysis & forecasts for bitcoin price and other altcoins. Here at NewsBTC, we are dedicated to enlightening everyone about bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

We cover BTC news related to bitcoin exchanges, bitcoin mining and price forecasts for various cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrency news

  • Bitcoin
  • Ethereum
  • Ripple
  • Chainlink
  • Cardano
  • EOS
  • Tezos

Technical Analysis

  • Bitcoin (BTC)
  • Ethereum (ETH)
  • Ripple (XRP)
  • Chainlink (LINK)
  • Cardano (ADA)
  • Tezos (XTZ)

Company

  • Advertising
  • Comments Policy
  • Privacy Center
  • Sitemap
  • About Us
  • Contact

© 2023 NewsBTC. All Rights Reserved.

  • News
    • Bitcoin
    • Ethereum
    • Cardano
    • Dogecoin
    • Ripple
    • DeFi
    • NFT
    • Sponsored
    • Press Releases
    • Research
  • Analysis
    • Bitcoin (BTC)
    • Ethereum (ETH)
    • Cardano (ADA)
    • Chainlink (LINK)
    • Litecoin (LTC)
    • Tezos (XTZ)
    • Zcash (ZEC)
    • EOS
    • YearnFinance (YFI)
  • Learn
    • Trading Course
  • Directory
    • Crypto Businesses
    • Bitcoin Brokers
    • Casinos
    • Sportsbooks
    • Categories
  • Events
  • Play Games
  • Play Casino Games
  • Play Finance
  • Claim 7 BTC

© 2023 NewsBTC. All Rights Reserved.

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy Center or Cookie Policy.