The two worst performing cryptocurrencies during the last 24 hours have been the Bitcoin Cash(BCH) price and the Litecoin (LTC) price.

Litecoin has dropped 16% to US$110.75 per coin during the period. This extends LTC’s one-month decline to a sizeable 50.7% and reduces its market capitalisation to US$6.2 billion.

Why is Litecoin dropping?

The decline in price is partnered with a drive of both trading volume and volatility, forecasting more trouble in the near future.

There doesn’t appear to be one specific reason as to why Litecoin is suffering.

The crypto-market is being dragged down by a general bearish trend, with the majority of currencies losing out overnight.

Another reason could be that litecoin price has come under considerable pressure this week after it was revealed that the LitePay merchant payment processing technology had been scrapped.

The LitePay technology had been seen as a way of bringing Litecoin into the mainstream, allowing retailers to accept the cryptocurrency in-store as easy as a Visa or Mastercard payment.

But with that technology being scrapped soon after launch, it looks as though the Litecoin dream is over, at least for now.

Time will tell what happens from here with these coins and the market as a whole, but with sentiment becoming increasingly negative, I feel there is a chance that more declines are around the corner.

The Litecoin Foundation published a bulletin Monday, March 26, notifying the public about the closure of “LitePay,” a potential Litecoin merchant solution similar to BitPay, and apologizing for “not doing enough due diligence” before promoting the company.

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Litecoin and Dark Web

Litecoin has suddenly become a priority for cybercriminals who work with the digital currencies in the unexplored dark surface of the internet (the dark web).

Over a long time now, use of cryptocurrencies has been taking place in these websites whereby the cybercriminals take advantage of Blockchain’s decentralized nature and perform their illicit activities.

According to a research done recently, it is evident that Litecoin is has become popular dramatically, almost taking the place that has always been reserved for bitcoin (but not yet though it is just behind bitcoin) on this dark web.

Abra Gradually Making Switch to Litecoin Blockchain

“Abra” founder Bill Barhydt thinks a reversal is just around the corner.

Barhydt, who has created the first-of-its-kind crypto-cum-fiat investing application partly using Litecoin’s technology, is of the view that the cryptocurrency markets will enter into another bull run once institutional money begins to flow from the west.

While Barhydt is in Europe promoting cryptocurrencies, an Abra customer services representative updated on Reddit that the project is moving smoothly, with the team beginning to test LTC as a base currency by next week.

He informed that native support for LTC is expected to be added by end of April. It basically means that Abra users may be able to transact in Litecoin (deposit and withdraw) in addition to Bitcoin.

Abra is not exclusively using Litecoin as its core technology just yet. Bitcoin remains part of the equation for now. But the employee confirmed that Abra is gradually making the transition to Litecoin’s blockchain.

What’s Next for LTC?

Team should to continue with business as usual without the Litepay project. Charlie Lee had in January expressed his vision for SegWit and Lightning Networks on the Litecoin platform. The team has an exciting road-map ahead with the recent release of Litecoin Core 0.16.0 to kick start progress moving forward.