Charlie Lee, the creator of Litecoin – the so-called silver bitcoin – has announced that he sold all of his holdings in this criptocoin, stating that there’s a conflict of interest, and even donated some of those funds to Litecoin Foundation.
In a post he made on Reddit, the developer explained that since he has become a major influencer of said cryptocurrency, comments about how he manipulates litecoin’s price for his own benefit started to make a lot of noise on him, to the point that he can’t even tweet about good or bad news on LTC without getting accused of doing it for personal profit.
Part of the post states:
“Some people even think I short LTC! So in a sense, it is conflict of interest for me to hold LTC and tweet about it because I have so much influence. I have always refrained from buying/selling LTC before or after my major tweets, but this is something only I know. And there will always be a doubt on whether any of my actions were to further my own personal wealth above the success of Litecoin and crypto-currency in general.”
This is the first time in six years that Lee isn’t holding LTC, according to him. “This is definitely a weird feeling, but also somehow refreshing”, he added.
Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean he’s ditching out the project or stop developing it. In fact, he’s sure that after the cryptocoin success, he will still be rewarded in many ways, except via holding coins. He also stepped ahead of people questioning if he intended to crash the market by selling off his holdings, stating that the amount sold was “a small percentage of GDAX’s daily volume.”
People reacts
Following this announcement, reaction from people was generally mixed, with some of them thinking it was an honest move that speaks for his transparency and care for Litecoin, while other criticized him by pointing out the fact that this movement means a lack of trust in his own project, and even labeled as a suspicious announcement issued days after stating he foresees a bearish reversal on LTC price.
Even Mike Novogratz, a former Fortress hedge fund manager and billionaire, expressed concern regarding this, explaining that he would be worried if suddenly an altcoin developer or founder such as Vitalik Buterin announced liquidation of his fundings in his own coin, in this case, Ethereum.
