The fifth largest cryptocurrency surges past $80 per coin

pulse

September 1, 2017 7:21 PM

Litecoin is riding the cryptocurrency wave.

The fifth largest cryptocurrency on the market surpassed $80 per coin Friday afternoon, as more well-known digital currencies such as bitcoin and ethereum continue to reach new heights. Litecoin is up 12.98% since yesterday at $82.50 per coin.

Cryptocurrencies are powered by distributed ledger technology and are not controlled by a centralized authority. The market for these coins and tokens has exploded this year with the total market cap for the industry now more than $170 billion, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com.

Litecoin came on the scene in 2013 and for most of its existence, it has only been worth a couple bucks. On March 30, the price of Litecoin skyrocketed 70% from about $4 per coin to $7, according to cryptocurrency news site, CoinDesk.

At the time, market experts attributed the spike to litecoin's potential adoption of Segregated Witness, a software update to increase transaction speed. Litecoin successfully activated SegWit in May.

Aaron Lasher, the chief marketing officer of Breadwallet, a bitcoin technology company, told Business Insider he thinks folks are pouring into litecoin because they don't want to miss out on the next bitcoin.

Bitcoin recently surpassed $4,800, up over 700% since 2016. Ether, the token powering the ethereum blockchain, is up 3,300% during the same time period.

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