In 2017, Litecoins token, the LTC, galloped higher by more than 5,200%, or about four times as much as bitcoin itself last year. It had a veritable laundry list of catalysts that got investors excited about its prospects of signing up merchants and giving bitcoin a run for its money. For example, Litecoin founder Charlie Lee left his job at Alphabet subsidiary Google to work full time on promoting Litecoin as of June 2017. Having Lees presence full time was viewed as a positive since it was expected that hed work to keep Litecoin on track and expedite a mass adoption of the virtual coin.