A lot of crypto-related headlines tend to be dominated by stories about price movements and speculative trading, in general. This makes it easy sometimes to overlook the other things that can be done with cryptocurrency and tokens that are thriving outside of the investment space. However, a quick look at how tokens are used outside of trading might reveal some underrated giants.
Take, for example, CoinGate’s recent report on crypto payments it processed in Q2 of 2024. According to the report, Litecoin, Bitcoin, and Dogecoin were some of the top tokens used to send crypto payments for that time period. The first place spot went to USDT with 34.2% of transactions, Bitcoin in second place with 21.5%, and Litecoin in third place with 14.3%.
The platform overall saw an increase in the quarterly average of transactions processed, with 404,674 orders for the second quarter of the year. While some of the usual suspects like Bitcoin and Tether were heavily used, the report highlighted Litecoin’s growth in such a short time.
Compared to Q2 2023, Litecoin transactions have seen a 3.43% spike and surged by 67% year over year. Overall, tokens like Litecoin have become more heavily used within the industry, including for things like gambling.
The combination of fast speeds and low fees means that anyone betting with crypto can keep more of their winnings and receive them much faster. This has made LTC gambling more convenient than using some other tokens and thus, more popular. As such, it is not unusual to see a crypto betting site prioritize Litecoin over others.
This was a sentiment shared by Alan Austin, Managing Director of the Litecoin Foundation, in a statement to CoinGate.
“Litecoin provides users with complete control of their money. Combine this with Litecoin’s ease of use, security, speed, low fees, and proven reliability, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a better payment solution on the planet,” he said.
If Litecoin continues on this current trajectory, we could see it become a more dominant token in the payments space, which is interesting considering it has been seen as an industry underdog for years.
It is also interesting to see the difference between cryptos used for payments vs investing. Going strictly by market cap, Bitcoin and Ethereum are the undisputed top 2 tokens in the industry, with Litecoin significantly less popular than them. However, a token being profitable does not mean that it has the features to enable convenient transfers, as we can see,
Instead, it is clear that stablecoins rule the roost as USDT remained the most popular token used for payments overall and for 2 out of 3 blockchains. This is especially significant considering all the scandals that Tether has endured over the years, even being called a manipulation tool in the past.
But clearly, it and other tokens in the same vein are providing benefits for users that will keep them in circulation.
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