New York-based Gemini exchange announced on Friday that it will be adding Litecoin (LTC) trading pairs to its popular cryptocurrency trading platform next month. Currently, the platform supports US dollar trading pairs for Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Zcash (ZEC).
Litecoin Trading Coming to Gemini Exchange
The announcement was made by Gemini’s Vice President of Engineering, Eric Winer, at the Litecoin Foundation’s First Annual Litecoin Summit, which was held on September 14 and 15 in San Francisco, California.
LIVE from the @LTCFoundation Litecoin Summit, "We are pleased to announce Gemini will be launching Litecoin support starting October 13th, 2018!” –@eric_winer #LTCSF18 #tothemoon pic.twitter.com/TqTjJjk7q4
— Gemini (@Gemini) September 14, 2018
According to Winer, Litecoin will be listed for trading on the exchange on October 13 – which, coincidentally, is also Litecoin’s birthday.
There was speculation among the crypto community that Gemini would soon be adding Litecoin support after a tweet by Twitter user @CryptoIsMoney2 elicited a response from the exchange that had Litecoin fans all around the world cheering:
We hear you! LTC is on it's way, we've already received regulatory approval to list, and we will be sure to let everyone know once it's available for trading.
— Gemini Support (@GeminiSupport) September 12, 2018
The news comes just days after the Winklevoss-led exchange announced the launch of “the world’s first regulated stablecoin”, the Gemini dollar (GUSD), an ERC20 coin built on the Ethereum network and pegged 1:1 to the US dollar.
Not surprisingly, the announcement of the addition of Litecoin trading pairs has been met with an overwhelmingly positive response from the Litecoin community.
The Litecoin Market Reacts
As word spread that Gemini had received regulatory approval to list Litecoin, prices jumped from $51.51 at the time of the September 12 tweet to its September 13 high of $55.42 – a gain of more than 7.5 percent, according to CoinMarketCap.
After a brief dip into $53 territory, prices jumped to $58.20 over the course of just a few hours in the wake of Winer’s announcement. The initial excitement seems to have cooled just a bit, however, as prices have dipped slightly to $56.17 at press time.
Litecoin is currently ranked #7 on CoinMarketCap, with a market cap of $3.27 billion and a 24-hour trade volume of more than $262 million.
What do you think of Gemini adding support for Litecoin? Which cryptocurrencies do you think the platform will add next? Let us know in the comments below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Twitter, CoinMarketCap