Litecoin founder Charlie Lee said in Reddit post he has sold his entire holding of the cryptocurrency.

Lee pins his decision on criticism that his Twitter posts about the currency were attempts at personal enrichment.

Lee says he will remain involved in litecoin and cryptocurrencies more broadly.



LONDON — The creator of one of the largest alternative cryptocurrencies has exited his entire stake in the digital currency, citing a "conflict of interest."

Charlie Lee announced in a Reddit post on Wednesday that he had "sold and donated" all of his litecoin holdings over recent days. He said the move was motivated by criticism from people that he was trying to influence the price of litecoin with his tweets.

Lee wrote: "Whenever I tweet about Litecoin price or even just good or bad news, I get accused of doing it for personal benefit. Some people even think I short LTC! So in a sense, it is [sic] conflict of interest for me to hold LTC and tweet about it because I have so much influence."

Lee, a former Google and Coinbase employee, created litecoin in 2011 as a quicker and cheaper alternative to bitcoin. As of Wednesday morning, it is the fifth largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of over $17 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.com.

"Litecoin has been very good for me financially, so I am well off enough that I no longer need to tie my financial success to Litecoin’s success," Lee said in his Reddit post.

Lee didn't disclose how many litecoins he had sold at what price but said his actions had not affected the price of the asset.

Litecoin is down over 6% against the dollar at 10.00 a.m. GMT (5.00 a.m. ET) on Wednesday morning. However, the cryptocurrency was already falling prior to Lee's announcement and his post does not appear to have affected the price. Markets Insider

Lee said he will remain committed to the Litecoin project and cryptocurrencies more generally.

"I’m not quitting Litecoin," he wrote on Reddit. "I will still spend all my time working on Litecoin. When Litecoin succeeds, I will still be rewarded in lots of different ways, just not directly via ownership of coins. I now believe this is the best way for me to continue to oversee Litecoin’s growth."

You can read the full Reddit post here.