Buy Litecoin in Canada
Litecoin made simple
Everything you need to know about Litecoin and how to start investing in it.
Current Price
This one’s easy: the price the coin or token is trading at right now.
$144.21 CAD
-$1.08 (-0.74%) past 24 hours
- Market Cap
The value of the entire supply of a specific cryptocurrency or token. It’s calculated by taking the price of a coin/token and multiplying it by the total number of that coin/token in circulation.
- $11,471,585,086.26
- Circulating Supply
The amount of coins that have already been created and are available in the market.
- $75,329,564.48
- Total Supply
The total amount of coins currently in existence minus any coins that have been burned or removed from circulation.
- $75,329,564.48
- 24h low - high range
Low-high range over the past 24 hours.
- $122.56 - $152.44
- 7 day low - high range
Low-high range over the past 7 days.
- $117.55 - $196.73
- 52 week low - high range
Low-high range over the past 52 weeks.
- $63.49 - $221.08
Litecoin 101
Litecoin: “Like Bitcoin, but faster.” Okay, that’s not the official tagline. But being faster and more cost efficient than Bitcoin is Litecoin’s claim to fame.
It’s worth thinking of Litecoin in comparison to Bitcoin, because they use similar technology. Litecoin’s blockchain is a “fork” of Bitcoin — that’s when someone copies the source code of a blockchain and uses it to launch an entirely separate blockchain.
Litecoin is sometimes called the “little brother” of Bitcoin because it came out three years after Bitcoin’s launch in 2008. It serves a similar purpose: to process payments on a decentralized, peer-to-peer network—but is quicker and better suited to small transactions.
While the Bitcoin blockchain takes 10 minutes to process a single block, Litecoin takes just 2.5 minutes. And while it can cost up to $70 to process a transaction on the Bitcoin blockchain, LTC transactions rarely cost more than $0.1.
Other Resources
Why Wealthsimple Crypto?
Wealthsimple Crypto lets you buy and sell cryptocurrencies all in one easy-to-use app. And as Canada’s first regulated crypto platform, you can trust that your coins are in good hands. How simple is it?
- Sign up in minutes right from your phone or laptop
- Start trading crypto with as little as $1
- No account minimums
- No clunky dashboards — just one super simple app
- Best of all: you don’t need to be an expert in crypto or blockchain to get started
What can you do with Litecoin?
Since Litecoin is so closely related with Bitcoin (and it’s been around for nearly as long), it has pretty much the same applications. That is: you can anonymously buy things (or receive money) without an intermediary (like a bank).
Is Litecoin a smart investment?
Crypto carries risks — but generally speaking, our advice (regardless of whether you’re investing in Litecoin or stocks) is: never invest what you can’t afford to lose. The smartest way to grow your money long term is with a diversified, low-cost portfolio that tracks the market.
How we keep your Litecoin safe
As Canada’s first regulated crypto trading platform, we’re required to meet certain requirements — like using only qualified custodians (like Coinbase Custody) for cold storage.
FYI: Wealthsimple Crypto is not an exchange itself. Instead, we work with multiple exchanges to give you the best Litecoin prices.
And to make sure your coins are extra protected, we’ve partnered with Coincover for an extra layer of security.
If you’re holding crypto outside of Wealthsimple, that’s no problem. You can safely transfer your Litecoin to your Wealthsimple account in just a few taps.
Other cryptos to explore
More info about Litecoin
Want to take a deeper dive? Check out these articles about Litecoin and the world of crypto.
What is Cryptocurrency?
Robert Stevens
Cryptocurrencies are a type of digital asset that run on blockchain technology. Here’s everything you need to know.
What is Blockchain? The Ultimate Guide
Robert Stevens
A quick primer on the building blocks needed to understand the basics of blockchain
Ready to get started?
Download the Wealthsimple Trade app, create your account, and start trading Litecoin with just $1. It’s that simple.
FAQs
Created in 2011, Litecoin is a spinoff of Bitcoin. It shares a lot of the same functionality that Bitcoin pioneered, but with a few key differences. Litecoin is, well, light in comparison to BTC — processing transactions on the Litecoin blockchain is both faster and cheaper.
Only 84 million LTC can ever be in circulation. That’s a hard limit — once all the Litecoin has been mined, no more can be created. Why 84M? Well, since Litecoin is four times faster than Bitcoin, developers thought it made sense to create four times the amount of BTC supply (21M).
As of September 2021, there are more than 66 million coins in circulation. The rest are yet to be mined.
You may find a small handful of retailers that accept Litecoin, but for the most part, investors are buying LTC as a speculative investment. That means they’re buying Litecoin in hopes of the value increasing over time.
But there may be another big player in the Litecoin scene: PayPal recently announced that users in the United States can pay with LTC. While they’ll technically convert it to fiat currency before processing the transaction with the merchant, it is one step closer to having a lightweight cryptocurrency used for everyday transactions
Yep! When you open a Wealthsimple Crypto account, you can get started with anywhere from $1 to $1,500 instantly.
Generally speaking, the CRA treats cryptocurrencies as a commodity. Here’s what they say:
Any income from transactions involving cryptocurrency is generally treated as business income or as a capital gain, depending on the circumstances. Similarly, if earnings qualify as business income or as a capital gain then any losses are treated as business losses or capital losses.
Always keep solid records of any Litecoin transactions. If you use Wealthsimple Crypto to buy or sell cryptocurrencies, we’ll generate some of those tax documents for you.
Litecoin’s current market cap is $11,471,585,086.00.
The current price for Litecoin in Canadian dollars is $144.21.
Buying Litecoin with Wealthsimple is, well, simple. The first thing you need to do is open and fund a Crypto account in the Wealthsimple Trade app. You can connect your bank account and add up to $1,500 instantly.
From there, follow these steps:
- Tap the magnifying glass icon in the top right corner of your screen
- Type in Litecoin
- Tap Buy
- Enter the dollar value of cryptocurrency you'd like to buy and tap Continue
- Review the order details and tap Confirm order
You can choose between two different order types when buying Litecoin. A market order lets you buy or sell crypto immediately at the best available price at the time. A limit order lets you buy or sell crypto at a specific price or better.
You can withdraw funds from the cash balance in your Crypto account and move those funds to your bank account. Withdrawals typically take around 2 - 3 business days.
A crypto wallet — often called a “hot wallet” — is a location for holding crypto “on-chain” (i.e. linked to the blockchain versus off-chain cold storage.) Many users use wallet applications to help them manage their blockchain addresses, since each chain uses its own addresses.