Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) transaction fees surged in 2023 and continue at higher levels. Facing expensive transaction costs, people started seeking more efficient cryptocurrencies to use as payment, like Litecoin (LTC).
In this context, monthly payment data by one of the largest cryptocurrency payment services, BitPay, evidences this phenomenon.
Notably, the platform’s users favored Litecoin by 38.25% in December, surpassing Bitcoin (23.24%) and Ethereum (10.45%). This trend started in November 2023 when LTC dominated 34.52% of BitPay payments, against 30.55% using BTC.
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Additionally, Dogecoin (DOGE) got fourth place with 7.38% of BitPay users’ transactions in December 2023. Followed closely by Bitcoin Cash (BCH), with 6.18%; Polygon (MATIC), with 5.09%; and Circle USD (USDC), with 2.07%.
BitPay relevancy on cryptocurrency payments
“BitPay is the leading crypto payment processor in the world.”
— BitPay
BitPay’s relevancy is notable, with reportedly 390,401 crypto transactions processed over the last six months. In December, the platform processed 51,896 payments with cryptocurrencies, of which 19,850 used Litecoin.
Further data on Litecoin, Bitcoin, and Ethereum payments
“Litecoin is the cryptocurrency most commonly used for transactions”
— BitPay
Interestingly, data from BitInfoCharts, retrieved by Finbold on January 6, shows a similar dominance for Litecoin transactions.
In particular, the Litecoin network had $1.23 billion sent in 525,888 transactions in the last 24 hours. This amount accrues for 25.28% of LTC’s market cap, according to BitInfoCharts.
On the other hand, Bitcoin had $15.88 billion sent in 418,600 transactions, for 1.86% of its capitalization. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s volume was lower than $3 billion, representing less than 1% of its market cap. Nevertheless, the number of transactions on the Ethereum network surpassed the 1 million daily mark.
In closing, Litecoin started earning protagonism in the realm of cryptocurrency payments. This is mostly due to Bitcoin’s inefficiencies as a medium of exchange, with users migrating to more efficient alternatives.
