Litecoin Surges After PayPal Includes It Among the Cryptos Customers Can Buy, Sell, Hold

Litecoin (LTC) rose more than 10% on Wednesday, outperforming bitcoin (BTC) to top the list of the best-performing major cryptocurrencies after PayPal confirmed it's entering the cryptocurrency market and included LTC on the list of cryptos its customers will be able to buy, sell and hold.

• LTC, the ninth-largest cryptocurrency by market value, jumped more than 12% to $52.64, the level last seen on Sept. 3.
• The surge came after PayPal, with 346 million active accounts around the world, pledged to make cryptocurrency “a funding source for purchases at its 26 million merchants worldwide.”
• Initially, the service supports BTC, ether (ETH), bitcoin cash (BCH) and LTC, the payments giant said.
• The announcement acted like rocket fuel to the crypto market overall as it may be a step to bringing crypto usage one step closer to the mainstream.
• BTC, the crypto market leader, jumped 6% to a fresh 2020 high of more than $12,700 before settling down to $12.688, up 5.99%, while ETH and BCH rose 4% and 7%, respectively.
• While LTC's double-digit price rise is impressive, its relatively less liquid than BTC so a relatively big orders can have substantial impact on price.
• "LTC markets are thinly traded and its largely spot, so traders don't have many ways to express sentiment other than trade spot," CoinShares CSO Meltem Demirors told CoinDesk in a Twitter chat.

UPDATE: 17:40 UTC: Adds commentary on litecoin's lack of liquidity.

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