When the Bitcoin market corrects it is usually good news for altcoins. Much of the profit taking from Bitcoin’s record high of $18,300 yesterday will be ploughed back into altcoins which have been suffering at the expense of the daddy of crypto. Altcoins were up across the board during the Asian trading session this morning, unlike forex cryptos can be traded at the weekend. One clear leader in the upward race was Litecoin which was up almost 60% at the time of writing.
Litecoin is often referred to as the silver to Bitcoin’s gold. It is far more stable and has a much faster transaction speeds. It has shown steady increases from $40 to $60 from June through to mid-November and none of the wild price swings and spikes that other altcoins have. Towards the end of November things started to move faster for Litecoin as it broke key resistance areas and traded up to around $95 where it has been for the past two weeks. Today the dragon awoke and Litecoin has shot up to record highs of over $160.
Litecoin is traded heavily in South Korea where exchanges handle over 25% of the global trade. News that the Korean government is planning to allow ICOs in the near future may have influenced this latest price action. According to Chosun, a mainstream news publication, the South Korean Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Financial Services Commission, Ministry of Justice, Fair Trade Commission, and Financial Supervisory Commission, have formed a task force to prepare a number of regulatory frameworks for organizations and investors in the cryptocurrency industry.
There will be heavier regulations on trading but with the promise of regulated ICOs for institutional investors. A spokesperson told local media “Currently, the task force is considering imposing stricter regulations for investor and consumer protection within the cryptocurrency market. In regards to ICOs, the government will likely impose regulations to enable institutional investors to invest in ICOs.”
Regulation and acceptance of ICOs will legitimize the market somewhat and provide some much needed stabilization to some pretty wild price swings. However conflicting stories of ICO bans in South Korea have caused further confusion.
It seems that the South Korean government wants to follow countries such as Japan which has embraced crypto currencies but has made efforts to protect traders from scams and fraudulent ICOs. “The South Korean government has no other choice but to follow the regulatory frameworks and trends established by other leading governments. While there certainly exists a negative reputation attached to the cryptocurrencies, the government’s stance is to allow what has to be allowed, for the benefit of the South Korean market.”
At the time of writing Litecoin was continuing to surge and was trading at an all-time high of $164.
