Litecoin's Charlie Lee: Crypto Adoption Is Surging Despite Market Decline

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Litecoin founder Charlie Lee says cryptocurrency adoption is flourishing despite the bear market.

In a new interview with CNBC’s Fast Money, Lee explains what he believes the current market value says about cryptocurrencies at large.

“I think in terms of the long term it tells us the success of cryptocurrency. In the short term it doesn’t really tell us much. For example, this year there’s been so much adoption in Bitcoin and Litecoin, but the price has dropped like 60-70%. It’s because it’s so volatile. It’s all about speculation these days. But in the future, the price will reflect the success of cryptocurrencies.”

Lee sold all of his Litecoin back in December to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, and says he won’t be buying LTC anytime soon.

As for whether the decline presents people with a buying opportunity for investors, Lee says he believes market dips can offer a good time to buy in the volatile crypto market, as long as you can afford to lose your investment.

“For me, I sold because of conflict of interest, so I’m not going to buy back my Litecoins anytime soon – or at all. But I think it’s always good to buy on the way down to dollar-cost average your buy-in. That’s what I would recommend people to do. As long as you don’t spend money that you can’t afford to lose, I think that’s fine. I think it’s really bad for people who mortgage their house, put all their money into a coin and then watch it drop like 80%. But as long as you can afford to, I’d say spending some money on crypto is perfectly fine.”

Lee also highlighted the areas of cryptocurrency that he thinks developers and investors should be focused on.

“I’d like people to focus on technology, on adoption, and also how to scale. So things like lightning network, or sidechains helping Bitcoin and Litecoin scale, I’d like to see more talk around that. And I think with the price currently depressed, it’s actually a good time for people to actually sit down and have their head down and actually work and get stuff done. And that’s what I’ve seen in the past few bear markets, actually.”