OKEx hints at Lightning integration as the exchange’s Litecoin offering enlarges

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Cryptic announcements are usually not very welcome in crypto. Ironic, isn’t it? Well, not that much. People talking about cryptocurrencies typically have a strong point to make, so they make it very strongly and directly without beating around the bush. That’s why a message published by OKEx a couple of days, via Twitter, has been making waves all over the cryptosphere.

The cryptocurrency exchange platform (one of the largest and the oldest in the industry) published that it is about to “Light up the market” and “Lite up the darkness.” No more information is available. Only a time frame (May-August 2019) and a bolt of lightning.

OKEx started in China. However, it’s now a global company that services more than a hundred countries all over the world. Its daily trading volume (according to the company itself) is of USD 1.5 billion.

Could that mysterious message be about Litecoin? It’s doubtful. Litecoin has already been available for trade in all of OKEx’s trading modes for quite some time now, so it wouldn’t make sense to do so much ado about nothing. The platform’s team must have something different in mind.

An option could be for OKEx to offer new trading pairs including many other digital assets, with the new pairs using LTC as the base coin. It would be great news for LTC as it would create a lot of new demand and trading volumes for Charlie Lee’s crypto token. But it’s unlikely.

If we take the dates as a hint, we’d need to wonder what event is scheduled to happen in the cryptosphere during August. There are several, but one seems more relevant than the rest. It’s Litecoin’s upcoming block reward that will occur on August 6th, 2019, at 09:00 UTC. But that’s just speculation and so many things could happen over the next three months that the date remains highly confusing as a hint.

The insistence on using lightning bolts, on the other hand, could point to the adoption of Bitcoin’s new Lightning network, which is already deployed and in production even though it’s still in the Beta stage. Should this be the correct interpretation of those tweets, it would make of OKEx the first platform to seize the power of the LN to process withdrawals and deposits, which would make transfer speeds much higher and the user experience much friendlier. It would also turn OKEx into one of the network’s most significant nodes.

So no, we really have no idea about what OKEx meant at all. But we’re pretty sure we’ll find out in the fullness of time, and it will be fantastic news, especially for Litecoin. We see the point in creating expectations in the wake of OKEx making what, we assume, will be an essential move for the platform and for the cryptosphere as a whole. But this kind of marketing tactics can be a tiny bit annoying, and if the Chinese company has chosen to play it like this, then it better makes sure that the news, when it’s finally announced, is truly spectacular.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

Naveed Iqbal: A crypto nerd, internet security wizard. Believer of 'decentralization' in real. Love helping others and spreading information worth sharing.