Bitcoin BTC/USD offshoot, Litecoin LTC/USD, surged 6.78% to $86.03 on Wednesday at the time of writing. On the same day, Litecoin said that Coinbase Global Inc COIN had filed with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to kick off futures trading for the cryptocurrency.
What Happened: It should be noted that the cryptocurrency trading platform also moved to launch monthly cash-settled futures contracts for Dogecoin DOGE/USD and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).
Bloomberg Intelligence ETF research analyst, James Seyffart, said on X that Coinbase’s move raises interesting regulatory questions with respect to the classification the three Bitcoin forked cryptocurrencies. He said, “Might be why Coinbase chose them.” He also shared the certifications, filed “quietly” with the CFTC, in the same post.
“These all forked from Bitcoin so ‘these are securities’ claims would be hard to make after spot #Bitcoin ETF approvals,” said Seyffart.
Why It Matters: Litecoin emerged in October 2011. It was created by Charles “Charlie” Lee, a former Google engineer. Derived from Bitcoin’s open-source code, Litecoin is mined on ASICs as well as GPUs. Similarly, Dogecoin and Bitcoin Cash were also forked from Bitcoin in 2013 and 2017 respectively.
This announcement comes at a time of significant market volatility. Coinbase has been facing its own challenges, with some users experiencing issues with their crypto sends and receives being displayed as pending. The exchange acknowledged this problem and assured users that their funds were safe.
The following day, the market experienced a significant downturn, with over $650 million worth of crypto being liquidated in a single day.
This was followed by a 13% drop in Bitcoin‘s BTC/USD value, on Mar. 20, prompting the question of whether the crypto market would recover.
Despite this, the demand for cryptocurrencies remains high, with Coinbase’s decision to offer futures trading for these assets reflecting a growing interest in the market. The move also highlights the increasing importance of altcoins like Dogecoin and Litecoin, which were initially created as a joke but have since gained significant traction in the crypto space.
Image: WorldSpectrum from Pixabay
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