Litecoin (LTC) founder Charlie Lee recently told CNBC that “It’s hard to predict [cryptocurrency] prices.” Lee added that he’d been in the crypto space for seven years, and from what he has observed, “sometimes it takes six months to a year” for digital currency prices to recover.
The former director of engineering at Coinbase further noted that “sometimes it can [even] take three or four years [for the crypto market to bounce back. So,] it’s kind of hard to say.” When questioned during the interview about what crypto prices tell users about the market, Lee said “in the long-term, [prices] tell us about the success of cryptocurrencies.”
He continued:
“In the short-term, [crypto prices] don’t really tell us much…for example, this year, there has been so much adoption in bitcoin and litecoin, but the prices have dropped like 60-70%. So, I think it’s because it’s so volatile…it’s all about speculation these days. But in the future, the prices will reflect the success of the [crypto]currencies.”
Commenting on why he sold all his litecoins, and whether he sees the decline in crypto prices as a buying opportunity, Lee remarked that he sold his LTC because of “conflict of interest.”
He added that he was also not looking to buy LTC again. However, the MIT computer science graduate noted that “it’s always good to buy [crypto] on the way down to the dollar cost average or your buy-in. That’s what I would recommend people to do.”
Focus More On Crypto Adoption
Lee also cautioned investors about risky investments as he said that, “As long as you don’t spend money that you cannot afford to lose, [then] I think that’s fine”, meaning that investors should only invest as much money in cryptocurrencies as their budget, or income, allows them.
There have been many cases, which Lee pointed out, where people had mortgaged their house, but then put “all their money into a coin, and [then] watched its price drop like 80%.” He then recommended that,
“As long as you can afford to, I’d say that spending some money to buy some crypto is perfectly fine.”
In response to what he is expecting during the upcoming Litecoin Summit on September 14th, Lee said,
“I want people to focus on technologies, on [crypto] adoption, and on how to [effectively] scale [blockchain networks].”
Need “More Talk Around” Lightning Network, Sidechains
According to the former Google employee, effective scaling solutions include the Lightning Network and sidechains and he’d like to see “more talk around them” in the crypto community. He also said that “with the [crypto] prices currently depressed, it’s actually a good time for people to sit down and have their head down [or focused] to get stuff done. This is what I’ve seen [happen] the past bear markets.”
As CryptoGlobe reported, Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin expressed similar views about the current bear market. Lubin had remarked that when cryptocurrency prices surged to all-time highs last year, developer activity also increased by “two orders of magnitude.”
While crypto prices have now dropped considerably, the Ethereum co-founder said we’re still witnessing a tremendous surge of interest and activity in the digital currency industry.
