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

Oct 21, 2020 at 15:45 UTCUpdated Oct 21, 2020 at 17:39 UTC.Litecoin rose more than 10% on Wednesday, outperforming bitcoin 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, bitcoin cash 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.