In the latest cryptocurrency market rally, Litecoin (LTC) joins Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) to become the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap thereby leaving behind Ripple’s XRP. At press time, LTC is trading at a price of $167 with a market cap of $10.9 billion.

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The latest uptick in the Litecoin rank comes amid the drastically falling valuations of XRP along with the simultaneous surge in LTC valuations. Following the SEC lawsuit just before the Christmas 2020 season, XRP price has plummeted southward losing nearly $20 billion in market cap. Despite the recent surge in XRP price, LTC is now leading the race with its weekly gains at nearly 30%.

Over the last month, the LTC price has surged nearly 100% in a strong market rally. Moreover, the XRP’s downfall could also be one of the reasons that more money has been flowing into LTC. On the other hand, there’s some sort of institutional activity gathering steam in Litecoin. The Grayscale Litecoin Trust (LTCN) now holds more than $145 million in assets under management. The LTCN AUM has also surged by more than 100% since the beginning of December 2020.

12/31/20 UPDATE: Net Assets Under Management, Holdings per Share, and Market Price per Share for our Investment Products.

Total AUM: $20.2 billion$BTC $BCH $ETH $ETC $ZEN $LTC $XLM $XRP $ZEC pic.twitter.com/YKb6T8htGx

— Grayscale (@Grayscale) December 31, 2020

However, another interesting aspect about the Litecoin (LTC) surge is its MimbleWimble code coming during the first quarter of 2021.

Litecoin’s Mimblewimble Code Development

As per the latest developments, the final code for LTC’s MimbleWimble protocol shall be ready by Q1 2021. Project lead developer David Burkett updated about its progress last week on December 28.

The code will be ready and merged Q1 2021. Activation timeline will be decided by users & miners.

— David Burkett (@DavidBurkett38) December 28, 2020

However, the activation timeline for the MimbleWimble protocol shall be decided by Litecoin miners and the Litecoin community. In his other tweet, Burkett mentions that he already released the working code for MimbleWimble on GitHub. He notes:

“I first attempted to design a secure way to support one-sided mimblewimble transactions back in January. Nearly one year and a dozen or so design iterations later, we finally have working code!”

Litecoin (LTC) has always been one of the key participants during the crypto market rally. However, LTC is still trading at a 50% discount from its all-time high in 2017. However, Bitcoin evangelist and Wall street veteran Mike Novogratz is not sure if the current rally can sustain for a long period. He says that Litecoin doesn’t hold any properties to accelerate adoption.

Challenge. I don’t see $LTC as having any properties that will accelerate adoption. I’d rather spend time on Defi projects. Long $BTC. Long $ETH. And long some cool Defi projects. https://t.co/jvAvWJQ0vc

— Mike Novogratz (@novogratz) January 2, 2021

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Bhushan Akolkar

Bhushan is a FinTech enthusiast and holds a good flair in understanding financial markets. His interest in economics and finance draw his attention towards the new emerging Blockchain Technology and Cryptocurrency markets. He is continuously in a learning process and keeps himself motivated by sharing his acquired knowledge. In free time he reads thriller fictions novels and sometimes explore his culinary skills.