Discover how to trade litecoin, as well as how litecoin works, what moves its price and whether you’ll need to buy and sell the cryptocurrency on an exchange.
Interested in litecoin trading with IG?
CFDs are complex financial instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. CFDs are complex financial instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
Discover how to trade litecoin, as well as how litecoin works, what moves its price and whether you’ll need to buy and sell the cryptocurrency on an exchange.
Interested in litecoin trading with IG?
Litecoin (LTC) is often referred to as the silver to bitcoin’s gold – and with silver often the more volatile of the two precious metals, that could make litecoin an intriguing prospect for traders. To start speculating on litecoin’s price movements, follow these three steps:
Open a contract in which you agree to exchange the difference in price of LTC from when you open your position to when you close it. If you ‘buy’ a CFD, then you’ll pocket any upward price movement as profit, but have to pay any downward movement as loss. If you ‘sell’, then the opposite is true.
But litecoin is different to bitcoin in a few important ways. Firstly, it is mined much faster, with the average block being verified and added to the blockchain in just 2.5 minutes, compared to ten minutes for bitcoin. That makes transactions faster, and should make it cheaper to transfer LTC.
There is also a cap of 84 million litecoins that can ever be mined. That is four times bitcoin’s cap, and combined with the faster transactions times has some people – including litecoin’s founder Charles Lee – claiming that LTC could be a better payment solution than bitcoin.
Finally, litecoin is based on a different algorithm to bitcoin: scrpyt to BTC’s SHA-256.
Considering its many similarities to bitcoin, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the factors affecting litecoin’s price are fairly similar to those for the world’s first cryptocurrency.
However, there are some unique things to watch out for as well:
Litecoin supply
Many point to litecoin’s wider supply as a key reason for its lower price point than bitcoin. Despite launching two years later, there are far more litecoins available on the market – and faster transactions ensure that supply remains fluid.
Bad press
Negative headlines surrounding litecoin – or negative headlines surrounding cryptocurrencies in general – will tend to play out on its price in a big way.
LTC’s value is entirely down to its public perception, which makes it even more dependent on favourable news.
Industry adoption
People may claim that litecoin has many benefits over bitcoin as a payment solution, but until it is accepted by businesses across the globe that will remain an unsubstantiated claim. So a major company adopting the cryptocurrency could see its price spike.
LTC market cap
It may be touted as a new currency, but investors buying and holding litecoin are the biggest reason for its rises in price. And those investors will pay attention to its market cap when deciding whether to buy more or sell.
Bitcoin’s price
It may not have been Charles Lee’s intention, but one way in which litecoin is similar to silver is in the price relationship it shares with its more illustrious cousin. Where gold goes, silver often follows; where bitcoin goes, litecoin often follows.
Do I need an exchange account to trade litecoin?
No, not if you trade via CFDs. This option doesn't involve taking ownership of any cryptocurrency, so you never need to deal directly with an exchange.
Instead, we source prices from multiple exchanges, and offer our own buy and sell prices. So all you’ll need to get started is a free, easy-to-open IG trading account.
What are litecoin’s trading hours?
With IG, you can trade litecoin 24 hours a day, 7 days a week except for Saturday from 2am to 12noon (Dubai time).
Market holidays may change these hours.
What is litecoin’s ticker symbol?
The ticker symbol for litecoin is LTC.
Can I add trading alerts to litecoin?
Yes, you can get notified when litecoin:
To set an alert, log in to the platform, open litecoin’s deal ticket, and choose your parameters. Click ‘set alert’ to save your settings.
Can I trade litecoin on mobile?
Yes, all of our 17,000 markets are available on mobile as well a desktop. Find out more about our mobile apps.
Go long or short on litecoin via CFDs
Discover how to trade litecoin, as well as how litecoin works
Get to grips with the basics of how to trade bitcoin with our step-by-step guide
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