Bitcoin is often referred to as the digital gold because of its similarities to the raw material we all know and love. Both are mined, both are scarce and both are a store of value. If there is one coin akin to a digital silver, it would have to be Litecoin.

Litecoin has definitely lost the luster it once had years ago when it forked from Bitcoin by Charlie Lee and became the world’s second cryptocurrency. Litecoin made considerable changes to make itself different from Bitcoin. The biggest change was moving to the scrypt hashing algorithm so that it can be GPU mined. Some other changes include new blocks coming in four times faster (in 2.5 minutes compared to 10 minutes) and the maximum number of coins was increased four fold (84 million as opposed to 21 million).

Litecoin, Vertcoin, Peercoin, Feathercoin, Dogecoin and hundreds of other coins created three to four years ago are all what I consider “currency” cryptocurrency. They’re all similar to Bitcoin, but each with its own unique enhancements.

Back in December of 2013, Bitcoin was worth roughly 28 times as much as Litecoin. These days, Bitcoin is worth 59 times as much as Litecoin, and that’s after the 6800 percent growth Litecoin saw in 2017. It’s also worth noting that Litecoin has lost its second spot on the top market cap list and now sits at No. 5.

Why can’t Litecoin keep up?

The craze in cryptocurrencies these days is about smart contracts and the ability to code programs within the Blockchain space. Because of this, Ethereum has become a dominant force in cryptocurrency and it now commands a $70 billion market cap, making its market cap bigger than that of Tesla.

Because Ethereum is now the platform everyone wants in on, you have hundreds of new cryptocurrencies coming out that are either trying to compete with or utilize it. “Currency”-based coins like Litecoin are seen as a thing of the past and are no longer generating the same hype.

So why is the price of Litecoin suddenly moving up?

The biggest reason is because Lee is back at the helm. Lee left for Coinbase years ago and decided to come back to the project that he created earlier this year. Although Litecoin did slowly trend up during the months Lee laid low, other coins such as IOTA, Dash, Ripple and newcomers like Cardano and EOS grew much faster and drew in a lot more interest.

Things finally changed last week.

Lee tweeted publicly that he was going to concentrate more on PR and the marketing of Litecoin. Days later, it was announced that the game company Steam would no longer support Bitcoin as a payment due to high transaction fees. Guess what? Lee tweeted they now accept Litecoin.

I’m sure Lee had a hand in that decision and it was brilliant. Litecoin needed a win like that to show it was neither “old” nor irrelevant. The market noticed.

That was only a week ago, and Litecoin’s price has gone from $100 dollars to now over $300 dollars — a 200 percent increase. Within that time, Lee has gone on CNBC and has done numerous interviews to promote Litecoin and help spread awareness. The marketing is in full effect.

What else is going to drive Litecoin’s price up?

From a technical perspective, Litecoin has evolved faster than Bitcoin. Litecoin has SegWit and lightning network fully implemented and can handle over 50 transactions per second. It’s not the fastest, but it will be faster than the five transactions Bitcoin can handle per second or the 15 transactions Ethereum can handle per second.

More coins, faster transactions and a smaller dollar value helps make the argument that Litecoin is better suited to be used as day-to-day currency. This argument becomes more apparent as Bitcoin’s value skyrockets higher and higher.

In my opinion, as Bitcoin rises up in price and as we come closer to mining Bitcoin out, we will see Bitcoin be used solely as a store of value. Bitcoin will become a cryptocurrency people hoard and lock away. There is a need for another cryptocurrency to take over as a day-to-day currency, one that people will want to use daily.

I can see Litecoin taking on that role. Litecoin is suited to become the cryptocurrency people will use to buy groceries, pay for gas and pay for movies.

With Lee concentrating on marketing and with Litecoin’s first-mover advantage (second to Bitcoin), I can very easily see Litecoin’s value rising rapidly in 2018. I can see Litecoin going as high as $1,500 by the end of 2018 — and even higher after that.

Litecoin is back.

George Tung is the founder of CryptosRus.com , a Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency destination that provides how-to guides, reviews, analysis, articles and more.