With the launch of LitePay, the Litecoin community had high expectations. The official release date was Monday, February 26. Since then, however, the platform has largely gone quiet. The reason appears to be that LitePay only launched in part — the distribution of LitePay debit cards has been delayed.
Even on the launch day, February 26, there was an unusual silence. What happened?
So far, only a merchant signup flow has gone live for businesses that want to accept Litecoin payments via LitePay. In contrast, the distribution of LitePay debit cards was canceled. Understandably, disappointment in Reddit and the wider Litecoin community has been significant. Charlie Lee, the founder of Litecoin, nevertheless expressed optimism:
The disappointment among investors has so far not been reflected strongly in Litecoin’s price. Over the past 24 hours the Litecoin price (at the time of writing) has fallen by only about 1.2 percent.
Those who registered for a LitePay debit card before the launch received the following message:
Due to hostile actions by card issuers towards crypto companies, we have decided that offering LitePay card registrations at this time is imprudent.
The issue appears to lie with intermediaries between Visa and the Litecoin-based payment system. In recent weeks there have been multiple reports that large banks worldwide are discouraging or blocking the use of credit cards to purchase cryptocurrencies. Those developments likely did not escape LitePay’s attention. Still, the company, in what many consider poor timing, waited until the release day to announce the postponement of the LitePay card.
Other companies, such as TenX, experienced similar problems when issuing their debit cards. LitePay is still a relatively small startup, so it will be interesting to see how quickly it can resolve issues with intermediaries like Visa and achieve broad acceptance.
Disclaimer: — Trading cryptocurrencies carries significant financial risk and can result in the total loss of invested capital. Coin-hero.de does not provide investment advice or recommendations under the German Securities Trading Act (WpHG). The content on this website is provided solely for information and entertainment. The statements made here reflect our opinions only and are not purchase recommendations. Please conduct your own research before investing in cryptocurrencies. We accept no liability for any damages. Please also read our legal disclaimer in the imprint. —