Bitcoin Vs Litecoin
Bitcoin vs Litecoin… Bitcoin has long been the dominant name in the cryptocurrency world, and it has been hard for other cryptos to stand out. But, Litecoin is one of only a few cryptos to make a real name for itself, and therefore Litecoin (LTC) vs Bitcoin (BTC) presents an interesting thread of comparison. So, if you are wondering which to buy, Bitcoin vs Litecoin, or which is better, read this article for a comparison of the similarities and differences in 2024, and their respective benefits.
Top Bitcoin & Litecoin Trading Brokers
#1 - AvaTrade
Why We Chose AvaTrade
Regulated in five continents, AvaTrade offers a secure way to access crypto markets. There's a great range of digital currencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple, plus a crypto index. You can access competitive crypto spreads in the broker's wide choice of platforms as well as 1:2 leverage.
"AvaTrade offers the full package for short-term traders. There is powerful charting software, reliable execution, transparent fees, and fast account opening with a low minimum deposit."
- DayTrading Review Team
- Coins: BCH, BTC, BTG, ETH, LTC, XRP, EOS, DASH
- Crypto Mining: No
- Auto Market Maker: No
- Crypto Spread: BTC <1%, ETH 2%
- Crypto Lending: No
- Crypto Staking: No
- Platforms: WebTrader, AvaTradeGO, AvaOptions, MT4, MT5, AlgoTrader, TradingCentral, DupliTrade
- Regulator: ASIC, CySEC, FSCA, ISA, CBol, FSA, FSRA, BVI, ADGM
About AvaTrade
AvaTrade is a leading forex and CFD broker, established in 2006 and regulated across 9 jurisdictions. Over 400,000 users have signed up with the broker which processes over 2 million trades each month. The firm offers multiple trading platforms, including MT4, MT5, and a proprietary WebTrader. 1250+ financial instruments are available for day trading, alongside a comprehensive education center and multilingual customer support.
Pros
- AvaTrade is a heavily regulated and trustworthy broker with licenses from the ASIC, CySEC and more
- Automated trading is supported through MetaTrader Expert Advisors (EAs), as well as the AvaSocial and DupliTrade tools
- WebTrader is well-suited to beginners and features a strong suite of technical analysis tools and market research for day traders
Cons
- A high $2000 minimum investment is required to use DupliTrade, which will be out of reach for many beginners
- There is no ECN account with raw spreads
- There’s an above-average $50 inactivity fee after three months, though this won't impact active day traders
#2 - OANDA US
Why We Chose OANDA US
You can speculate on the world’s biggest cryptos by market cap. Commissions are lower than many peers starting at 0.25%. Through the broker’s partnership with Paxos, clients can spot trade cryptocurrencies on the itBit exchange through the OANDA native platform.
"OANDA remains an excellent broker for US day traders seeking a user-friendly platform with premium analysis tools and a straightforward joining process. OANDA is also heavily regulated with a very high trust score."
- DayTrading Review Team
- Coins: BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH, PAXG, LINK, UNI, AAVE
- Crypto Mining: No
- Auto Market Maker: No
- Crypto Spread: $100
- Crypto Lending: No
- Crypto Staking: No
- Platforms: OANDA Trade, MT4, TradingView, AutoChartist
- Minimum Deposit: $0
- Regulator: NFA, CFTC
About OANDA US
OANDA is a popular brand offering exceptional execution, low deposit requirements and advanced charting and trading platform features. The top-rated brand has over 25 years of experience and is regulated by trusted agencies, including the NFA/CFTC. Around the clock support is available for short-term traders, alongside flexible contract sizes and automated trade executions.
Pros
- The proprietary OANDA web platform continues to deliver a highly competitive charting environment, including 65+ technical indicators powered by TradingView
- Beginners can get started easily with $0 minimum initial deposit
- Day traders can enjoy fast and reliable order execution
Cons
- There's only a small range of payment methods available, with no e-wallets supported
- The range of day trading markets is limited to forex and cryptos only
- It's a shame that customer support is not available on weekends
#3 - Deriv.com
Why We Chose Deriv.com
Deriv.com continues to offer a strong selection of 30+ crypto pairs - this is more than double the range offered at our leading competitor, IQ Cent. 1:2 leverage is also available so you can magnify potential returns, and there are no commissions which is ideal for newer day traders.
"Deriv.com will suit day traders looking to make fast-paced trades using CFDs and multipliers with high leverage up to 1:1000. The broker is also the industry leader in synthetic indices, which simulate real market movements and are available around the clock. "
- DayTrading Review Team
- Coins: BTC, LTC, ETH, USDT, USDC
- Crypto Mining: No
- Auto Market Maker: No
- Crypto Spread: From 0.5
- Crypto Lending: No
- Crypto Staking: No
- Platforms: Deriv Trader, MT5
- Minimum Deposit: $5
- Regulator: MFSA, LFSA, VFSC, BFSC
About Deriv.com
Deriv.com is a low cost, multi-asset broker with over 2.5 million global clients. With just a $5 minimum deposit, the firm offers CFDs, multipliers and more recently accumulators, alongside proprietary synthetic products which can't be found elsewhere. Deriv provides both its own in-house charting software and the hugely popular MetaTrader 5.
Pros
- Traders can use multipliers between 1 and 30, with take profit, stop loss and deal cancellation parameters
- There's a good range of fast deposit and withdrawal methods with zero payment fees and low minimum deposits
- The free demo account is ideal for practicing short-term trading strategies and no registration is required
Cons
- There's no loyalty program or rebate scheme for high volume traders
- The range of 100+ assets trails some competitors such as Quotex which offers 400+
- There are limited copy trading tools and analysis features compared to alternatives like IQ Cent
#4 - Pepperstone
Why We Chose Pepperstone
Pepperstone continues to prove itself as one of the most trusted crypto brokers. Although its selection of digital tokens is average, you can trade popular cryptos like Bitcoin and altcoins like Ripple with up to 1:10 leverage, while its crypto indices provide a holistic view of the digital currency markets not found on most day trading platforms.
"Pepperstone stands out as a top choice for day trading, offering razor-sharp spreads, ultra-fast execution, and advanced charting platforms for experienced traders. New traders are also welcomed with no minimum deposit, extensive educational resources, and exceptional 24/7 support."
- DayTrading Review Team
- Coins: BCH, BTC, ETH, LTC, DASH, ADA, LINK, DOGE, EOS, DOT, XRP, XLM, XTZ, UNI, BNB
- Crypto Mining: No
- Auto Market Maker: No
- Crypto Spread: BTC 30, ETH 0
- Crypto Lending: No
- Crypto Staking: No
- Platforms: MT4, MT5, cTrader, TradingView, AutoChartist, DupliTrade
- Minimum Deposit: $0
- Regulator: FCA, ASIC, CySEC, DFSA, CMA, BaFin, SCB
About Pepperstone
Established in Australia in 2010, Pepperstone is a top-rated forex and CFD broker with over 400,000 clients worldwide. It offers access to 1,300+ instruments on leading platforms MT4, MT5, cTrader and TradingView, maintaining low, transparent fees. Pepperstone is also regulated by trusted authorities like the FCA, ASIC, and CySEC, ensuring a secure environment for day traders at all levels.
Pros
- Pepperstone emerges as a low-cost broker, especially for serious day traders with spreads from 0.0 in the Razor account and rebates of 25%+ through the Active Trader program.
- Pepperstone boasts impressive execution speeds, averaging around 30ms, facilitating fast order processing and execution that’s ideal for day trading.
- There’s support for a range of industry-leading charting platforms including MT4, MT5, TradingView, and cTrader, catering to various short-term trading styles, including algo trading.
Cons
- Pepperstone does not support cTrader Copy, a popular copy trading feature built into the excellent cTrader platform and available at alternatives like IC Markets.
- Pepperstone’s demo accounts are active for only 30 days, which may not be not long enough to familiarize yourself with the different platforms and test trading strategies.
- Despite enhancements to its range of markets, crypto offerings are relatively limited compared to other brokers such as eToro, with no option to invest in real coins.
#5 - XM
Why We Chose XM
XM offers a handful of cryptocurrencies against the USD via the South African entity only. These are tradable via CFDs with high leverage up to 1:500. You can explore major tokens like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple with just a $30 deposit.
"XM is one of the best forex and CFD brokers we have tested. The flexible account types will suit a variety of short-term trading styles while the $5 minimum deposit and smooth sign-up process make it easy to start trading."
- DayTrading Review Team
- Coins: BTC, ETH, LTC, XRP, BCH
- Crypto Mining: No
- Auto Market Maker: No
- Crypto Spread: Variable
- Crypto Lending: No
- Crypto Staking: No
- Platforms: MT4, MT5
- Minimum Deposit: $5
- Regulator: ASIC, CySEC, DFSA, FSC, FSCA
About XM
XM is a globally recognized forex and CFD broker with 10+ million clients in 190+ countries. Since 2009, this trusted broker has been known for its low fees on 1000+ instruments. XM is regulated by multiple financial bodies, including the ASIC and CySEC.
Pros
- 1000+ instruments are available, including recently added thematic indices, providing exposure to emerging industries
- The broker offers premium research including market sentiment, fundamental insights and strategy builders
- XM continues to deliver diverse and multilingual educational materials and offers a useful live education schedule for its webinars and insights
Cons
- PayPal deposits are not supported
- There is weak regulatory oversight through the global entity
- There's $5 inactivity fee after only 3 months, though this won't affect active traders
What Is Bitcoin?
Before we start comparing Bitcoin vs Litecoin, let’s first look into Bitcoin’s history, uses and where to find price charts and graphs. Bitcoin was first announced in 2008 by a person or group using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. The first block was mined on January 3rd, 2009, starting the course of blockchain Bitcoin mining as we know it today. For years, the price of Bitcoin remained low, reaching an unexpectedly high peak of $1,242 in 2013. But it was not until 2017 that Bitcoin truly boomed, resulting in huge profits for anyone who had made early investments in the token.
In December 2017, the price reached an all-time high of $19,783.06, and although it fluctuated following this, new highs kept being hit. November 2020 saw a new all-time high of $19,850.11. But, a steady bull run since then has meant huge hikes, and as recently as September 2021 the price reached $50,128. Today’s value can be monitored on CoinMarketCap.
Bitcoin is a decentralized, digital currency – i.e a list of transactions that are stored on a blockchain ledger that state that person X sent Bitcoin to person Y. The blockchain stores information in blocks which are then mined, verifying each transaction and ensuring the same Bitcoin cannot be sent twice. Bitcoin’s uses have grown massively throughout the years. Since the 2017 boom, many companies, such as Expedia, have started accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment. One of the main uses is to try and get rich by trading Bitcoin, the large fluctuations present traders with lots of opportunities. Moreover, El Salvador became the first country to officially adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender in June 2021, showing how strong the world regards its potential.
What Is Litecoin?
When comparing Bitcoin vs Litecoin, there are similarities in Litecoin’s origin. Like Bitcoin, Litecoin is a decentralized, digital currency founded two years after Bitcoin in 2011. It was created by a former Google engineer named Charlie Lee, describing it as the “lite version of Bitcoin”. At the time, Bitcoin had become very expensive to mine in terms of both energy, power consumption and equipment. Mining was largely being performed on GPUs; makings CPUs obsolete when it came to mining. Litecoin was set up with a source code fork of the Bitcoin Core client.
Litecoin is not issued by a government and is not regulated by a central bank. Instead, trading is carried out on a peer-to-peer basis, directly between holders. Payments are verified through the proof-of-work algorithm. In 2017, the price of Litecoin skyrocketed, as happened with Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies at the time. The value went from merely $4.05 to a peak value of $237.57. Litecoin did not hold its value as well as competitors, but it did reach an all-time high of $255.79 in April 2021. Today, the price sits around $184, and the exact value can be found on CoinMarketCap. Litecoin has many uses. One of the most popular is to trade Litecoin for profit, aiming to use the daily fluctuations for investors’ advantages. Other than this, Litecoin can be used to pay for many services, including tea, coffee, pet products and even houses through RE/MAX in London.
Bitcoin Vs Litecoin Similarities
On the surface, when comparing Bitcoin vs Litecoin, you’ll see they are fairly similar. Both are decentralized currencies, which, unlike regular fiat currency like US dollars or pounds sterling, means they do not rely on the backing of central banks for value and circulation control. Moreover, they can both be traded on decentralized exchanges (DEXs), peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto exchanges and centralised exchanges. Some of the key similarities are:
Proof Of Work
One obvious similarity when comparing Bitcoin vs Litecoin is that they both use the proof-of-work (PoW) ecosystems. This is a system that requires an amount of effort to deter frivolous activity, such as attempting to use the same coin twice. For both Bitcoin and Litecoin, proof-of-work is the process by which both are mined, indicating a relationship between the two. This simultaneously generates new coins, authenticates them, verifies transactions and adds them to the blockchain. In both cases, cryptocurrency miners solve mathematical puzzles of increasing difficulty by using a hash algorithm to generate the correct answer. This results in them being rewarded with new coins.
Storage And Transactions
Storage and transactions present another fundamental similarity in Bitcoin vs Litecoin. The two cryptocurrencies are known for their easy transaction facilities. As mentioned, they can both be bought or exchanged using many online crypto exchanges and can be mined using a mining rig. In addition to this, Bitcoin and Litecoin require a wallet to store the currency. Hot or cold wallets are suitable for either. Finally, as with all cryptocurrencies, they’re subject to huge volatility which can result in large price increases and drops.
Bitcoin Vs Litecoin Differences
While the similarities between Bitcoin vs Litecoin tend to be clear, the differences are a little more interesting:
Market Capitalisation
Market capitalisation is one area of Bitcoin vs Litecoin that features large differences. This itself is not too surprising, Bitcoin is by far the largest of all cryptocurrencies. As of September 2021, Bitcoin had a staggering market cap of $814 billion, eclipsing the next closest crypto, Ethereum, which had a market cap of $359 billion. In September 2021, Litecoin had a market cap of only $10 billion, smaller than Bitcoin by a ratio of over 80:1 and ranking 17th out of all cryptos. In August 2020, Bitcoin had a market cap of $215 billion while Litecoin’s was around $3 billion. Looking further back to August 2017, around the peak of the first crypto boom, Bitcoin was averaging $320 billion vs Litecoin’s $17 billion.
Distribution
Distribution is another factor that differs when comparing Bitcoin vs Litecoin. Litecoin can accommodate a total of up to 84 million tokens, whereas the Bitcoin network can never exceed 21 million. On the outside, this sounds like an advantage for Litecoin, more coins would make it easier to pay small amounts. However, both Bitcoin and Litecoin are divisible by very large amounts. The minimum transferable quantity of Bitcoin is 0.00000001 Bitcoins. This means that, no matter how high the price of a Bitcoin gets, it will still be possible to pay small amounts.
Transaction Speed
The transaction speeds of Bitcoin vs Litecoin vary significantly. Although transactions technically happen instantaneously on both blockchains, these transactions still must be confirmed by other network participants (miners). Litecoin was designed and founded with the idea that transaction speed would be prioritized. The average time for a block to be verified and added to the blockchain on the Bitcoin network is around 10 minutes, while on Litecoin it is roughly 2.5 minutes – four times quicker. This could make Litecoin a more appealing option for merchants as they would receive confirmation of payment in a much shorter time. The merchants do not have to wait for confirmation, although this would make the Litecoin security much stronger vs Bitcoin with no confirmation.
Algorithms
This represents the largest technical difference between Bitcoin vs Litecoin. Bitcoin uses the longstanding SHA-256 algorithm, whereas Litecoin uses a newer algorithm known as Scrypt. These algorithms impact the mining process. Both Bitcoin and Litecoin require substantial amounts of computing power, but SHA-256 is a more complex algorithm. Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) dominate the Bitcoin mining world. These are hardware systems that are tailor-made for mining Bitcoin and they are generally very expensive both in terms of cash and energy use. Litecoin’s Scrypt, on the other hand, is less susceptible to ASICs, and as a result, CPUs and GPUs can still be used to mine Litecoin, making it much more accessible. When you take all this into account for Litecoin vs Bitcoin, a mining profitably calculator will say that Litecoin is the better option since the hardware is much cheaper.
Value And Fees
Bitcoin vs Litecoin values vary significantly. One Bitcoin is worth substantially more than one Litecoin. In September 2021, one Bitcoin was worth $43,000, whereas one Litecoin was $150, a minuscule amount in comparison. Bitcoin vs Litecoin transaction fees are also very different. Litecoin users can expect to pay around $0.04 on average per transaction, whereas Bitcoin charges an average of $7.60 per transaction. The main reason for this difference is that Litecoin sets aside currency to incentivise miners, while Bitcoin derives this directly from transaction fees.
Pros Of Bitcoin For Traders
These are the main advantages of trading Bitcoin in our eyes:
- High liquidity
- Very large trading volume
- Most valuable cryptocurrency
- High volatility (amplified by value)
- Largest market cap of any cryptocurrency
- More accessible (almost every exchange offers Bitcoin)
Pros Of Litecoin For Traders
Our research found these advantages of trading Litecoin:
- Low transaction fees
- Fast transaction speed
- Trustworthy developer team
- Energy-efficient mining process
- Larger upper limit of coins, reducing inflation risk
- Constant improvements are being implemented, such as the Lightning Network protocol
Bitcoin Vs Litecoin Verdict
Bitcoin vs Litecoin are two of the original cryptocurrencies, being founded in 2009 and 2011 respectively. The two coins have benefitted greatly from price booms in the crypto world, seeing their values skyrocket compared to their initial value. Today, there is a large difference between the two, as Bitcoin dominates the market both in terms of value and market cap. Still, Litecoin does have its advantages, including quicker transaction speeds and more efficient mining. The two currencies are both important to the decentralized world and have proven to be worthwhile investments to this day.
FAQs
Is Bitcoin Vs Litecoin A Better Investment?
It is hard to give a definitive answer a to which of Bitcoin vs Litecoin is a better investment. Both have their benefits, and the profitability will depend on the market conditions at the time of investment.
Are Bitcoin Vs Litecoin The Same?
No, Bitcoin vs Litecoin are not the same. They share similarities and they are both decentralized currencies, but there are fundamental differences between the two coins.
Can I Send Litecoin To A Bitcoin Address?
No, you cannot send Litecoin to a Bitcoin address and vice versa. Doing so will result in the coins being lost.
Where Can I Find Litecoin And Bitcoin’s Values?
Values for both Bitcoin vs Litecoin can be found online at crypto information websites like CoinMarketCap. These are regularly updated along with rankings of the different cryptocurrencies.
Can Litecoin Overtake Bitcoin?
Whether or not Litecoin can overtake Bitcoin is a matter of speculation. Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency, and the likelihood of it being surpassed by Litecoin is slim. In reality, if Bitcoin were to be usurped, it would be one of the larger cryptos such as Ethereum that did it.