US retailing giant Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) has announced what it calls a “major partnership” with Litecoin. The company intends to give its millions of shoppers across the world an opportunity to seamlessly make payments with cryptocurrencies.
The news that Walmart would allow its customers to pay in Litecoin, not surprisingly, gave LTC a major boost in Monday trading, with the cryptocurrency trading up by as much as 21% to USD $230, before settling down to sit about 6% above weekend trade levels at the time of writing. LTC is still well below its high of $376 set in May.
The Walmart-Litecoin news had the opposite effect of Ethereum, often looked at as #2 to Bitcoin among cryptos, with ETH trading down Monday by about 7%, to USD $3,180.
Doug McMillon, Walmart CEO said:
“The momentum and excitement around the use of cryptocurrency are undeniable, and we are poised to make online shopping easy for our customers. As a leading eCommerce store, we are committed to bringing innovations to the online shopping experience. By integrating Litecoin, we will enable shoppers to experience a very smooth checkout experience with near instant transaction confirmation, and near-zero fees regardless of where in the world they are. We’re very excited to be working together with the Litecoin Foundation, and further innovate our business. Starting October 1st, all eCommerce stores will have implemented a ‘Pay with Litecoin Option.’”
Walmart has long been one of the earliest adopters of blockchain technologies, starting as early as 2016 to trial the digital ledger for improvements in its supply chain. Now, with this partnership, Walmart will offer their shoppers to use Litecoin to benefit from the features of the cryptocurrency.
Charlie Lee, Litecoin’s creator and the CEO of Litecoin Foundation shared,
“LTC’s super low fees and fast transaction times are perfect for a leading eCommerce store like Walmart. We are thrilled and extremely excited that our cryptocurrency is now supported by Walmart, opening up more opportunities for any merchants to accept Litecoin in the future.”
Why Litecoin?
Released in 2011, Litecoin is one of the oldest digital currencies in the crypto ecosystem. Litecoin (LTC) is similar to Bitcoin (BTC), in that it uses the same code as the latter, and shares many similarities. However, Litecoin is cheaper and faster than Bitcoin, and has long been viewed as “digital silver” to Bitcoin’s “digital gold”. Litecoin is also a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that facilitates cross-border transactions and enhances digital payment systems. Like Bitcoin, Litecoin has no central authority.
Litecoin was designed to be used for cheaper transactions, and to be more efficient for everyday use. While Litecoin requires more sophisticated technology to mine than Bitcoin, blocks are actually generated up to four times faster. Litecoin also processes financial transactions a lot quicker.