Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini has announced that effective Saturday, Oct. 13, at 9:30am EDT, customers will be able to deposit litecoin into their Gemini accounts. The New York-based startup headed by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss made the announcement on Friday via a post on its website.
Anticipated Market Impact
In the announcement post, Eric Winer, Gemini’s VP of engineering, stated that traders can begin their transactions using litecoin from Tuesday, Oct. 16, and this development was done to further push the vision of making the platform the foremost trading and exchange program in the world. Litecoin (LTC) is the fourth digital asset available on the Gemini platform, joining bitcoin, ether, and zcash.
Litecoin is a widely traded asset and goes through regular boom and bust cycles. It is a fork of the original Bitcoin source code and it nurses the ambition to propagate the use of cryptocurrency for daily transactions, similar to the payment methods of the traditional banking system (e.g., cash, debit, and credit cards) by offering faster and cheaper transactions than the Bitcoin blockchain.
Listing on the Gemini marketplace will see litecoin interact with Wall Street movers and shakers, which will also boost the coin’s interaction with the fiat economy. The anticipated pairing with the greenback will see a spike in LTC liquidity and a diversification of investment for its holders since this is an ideal gateway to fiat.
LTC Price Sees Slight Uptick
The litecoin price saw a slight uptick on Friday following its listing on Gemini, which currently ranks as the world’s 39th-largest exchange, rising about two percent to a present value of $53.79. Contrast that with 0x, which rose nearly 20 percent following its listing on Coinbase Pro yesterday.
Gemini Sees Growth, Plans Bitcoin Cash Integration
According to Winer, Gemini’s user base has increased substantially for both retail and institutional investors, based on its status as one of the most highly regulated exchanges under the NYDFS “BitLicense” framework.
He said:
“Though we have a steady increase into our user base and have plans to take on more crypto currencies, we still continue to grow with a “security-first” approach. We have worked closely with the appropriate regulatory bodies to gain approval for litecoin trading and custody service and we are excited to provide our customers with a safe, secure, and compliant method to buy, sell, and store these digital assets.”
The announcement also mentioned that there is a plan to offer support for bitcoin cash (BCH). This has been put on hold because of uncertainty within the bitcoin cash community about one or more possible hard forks arriving in mid-November. He said a proper announcement in this regard will be made in the latter part of November after the potential fork dates have passed and a proper evaluation has been performed on the health of the bitcoin cash ecosystem.
Featured Image from Shutterstock. Charts from TradingView .
