After 75-fold rally, cryptocurrency founder sells his coins

Charlie Lee, creator of the world’s fifth-biggest cryptocurrency, cashed in during a 75-fold rally this year.

The San Francisco-based software engineer whose litecoin was founded in 2011 “sold and donated” all of his holdings over the past few days, he said in a Reddit post. The disposal was aimed at preventing a “conflict of interest” when Lee makes comments on social media about the digital currency that could influence its price, he said.

“Litecoin has been very good for me financially, so I am well off enough that I no longer need to tie my financial success to litecoin’s success,” Lee said. “For the first time in six+ years, I no longer own a single LTC” other than a few collector’s coins.

Lee declined to comment in the post on how many coins he sold or at what price, but noted that the amount was a small percentage of daily volume and “did not crash the market.”

The news for litecoin investors “is positive because it allows him to speak freely on social platforms,” said Michael Kazley co-founder of Crescent Crypto Asset Management, a US passive digital-asset fund. “On the other hand it’s also negative, because it’s hard to evaluate his go-forward financial incentives.”

Lee said litecoin’s price may now take a “short-term dip due to people losing faith thinking that I’ve lost faith,” Lee said in emailed answers to questions from Bloomberg. Ultimately though, the move will be good for the token long-term, he said.