Litecoin saw its value drop 10 percent after the CEO of payments processor LitePay announced that it was ceasing operations as it prepares to sell the company.
Data from CoinMarketCap shows that the value of litecoin is trading around $144, at the time of publishing, and is down 28.5 percent for the month. Since the beginning of the year, the fifth-placed altcoin has dropped 37.5 percent so far this year.
In mid-February, it was reported that the price of litecoin had jumped 30 percent after LitePay, a payments processor for the currency, announced that it would be going live on the 26th February. News of this saw Charlie Lee, creator of litecoin, tweeting about the venture.
However, recent developments has seen an announcement from the Litecoin Foundation, a nonprofit for advancing the digital currency and an investor in LitePay, stating on its website that:
…the Litecoin Foundation was contacted by Kenneth Asare, CEO of LitePay, informing us that he has ceased all operations and is preparing to sell the company.
The foundation went on to say that it had:
…refused any further funding as [Asare] was unable to provide a satisfactory picture of where the money had been spent and refused to go into exact details about the company and show objective evidence to back up his statements.
In light of the news, Lee tweeted:
Like everyone else, we got too excited about something that was too good to be true and we optimistically overlooked many of the warning signs. I am sorry for having hyped up this company and vow to do better due diligence in the future.
The Litecoin Foundation went on to say that the cryptocurrency was doing fine before LitePay and would continue to do so after this, adding:
The ecosystem is far bigger than one company and is continually growing with support from many others with market ready products joining the space and fulfilling their promises to make it easier for the world to use Litecoin.
