Litecoin founder sells all his holdings

Charlie Lee the software engineer, founder of Litecoin has said in a reddit post that he has sold and donated all of his coins during following a 75-fold rally this year.

In the post, he said he sold because in the past he had been accused every time he tweeted about Litecoin of trying to influence the price and that he might be doing so for personal benefit.

"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."

He also assured that he was not quitting Litecoin, explaining that when the company succeeded he would still be rewarded in other ways (not just directly via ownership of coins). For him, that was the best way to contribute to Litecoin's growth.

He did not comment on how many coins were sold and at what price, opting instead only to point out that the sale had not crashed the market.

Litecoin has climbed more than 9% in the last week to $330.07, according to coinmarketcap.com, but it slumped 7% on Wednesday - like most digital currencies - in the wake of reports about a hacking incident laid low a South Korean exchange.

Lee insisted in his post that he hadn't sold his coins because he had lost faith in his cryptocurrency.

Lee created Litecoin in 2011 as a cheaper and quicker alternative to bitcoin, turning it into the 5th largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of over $17bn, according to CoinMarketCap.com.