Litecoin (LTC) is emerging among the most preferred cryptocurrencies for use in online shopping as digital assets get entrenched in the e-commerce space.
New research by crypto payment processor CoinGate published on March 1 indicates that in 2022, Litecoin was the fourth most utilized cryptocurrency as a payment option for online shopping, registering 88,295 LTC-involved orders or 9.5% of total cryptocurrency payments handled through CoinGate. LTC ranks behind Bitcoin (BTC), which remains the highest asset for online shopping, followed by USDT and Ethereum (ETH).
Also, the number of Litecoin payments for last year represented a growth of over 6% from the 2021 figure of 83,620. According to the report, January 2022 registered LTC’s highest monthly use in payment of goods and services, representing 8,971 orders.
Additionally, the report stated that the use of the 13th-ranked cryptocurrency by market cap has been rising since June 2022. For instance, as of December last year, the payments involving LTC hit 7,968, a change of over 11%, from June, the lowest performing month at 6,717 orders.
Catalysts behind LTC’s growing use in online payments
On Litecoin’s high ranking as a payment option, the study attributed the factor to network speed and fees. According to CoinGate:
“There are a few notable reasons for it. First, Litecoin transaction fees are meager, making it a decent currency for online shopping, no matter the payment size. Currently, the average transaction cost revolves around a mere $0.0070 per transaction. Secondly, Litecoin is fast as it takes only 2.5 minutes for miners to mine a block of transactions, compared to 10 minutes for the Bitcoin blockchain“.
Interestingly, the report also shared insights into the amount involved in transaction for specific orders. For instance, on CoinGate, the largest ever LTC cart had goods worth €20,641 or 312,89 LTC at the time. Elsewhere, the least cart involved 0,0009 LTC.
As per a previous Finbold report, a survey by CoinGate had also indicated that crypto payments volume in e-commerce surged by over 60% in 2022.
Indeed, Litecoin has mostly been equated to Bitcoin as the lighter version of the maiden cryptocurrency. At the moment, Litecoin is at the center of the crypto space ahead of the halving event. By press time, LTC was trading at $97.71.
