Plus500 launches Litecoin

In recent weeks, many people have been talking about virtual currencies with Bitcoin recently reaching the heady heights of $1,000 per coin. The recent strong performance of Bitcoin has also got many in the FX industry interested in offering virtual currency products. Plus500 have been a pioneer when it comes to offering their customers virtual currency products, having launched a Bitcoin CFD product early this year. This made them the first brokerage to offer a Bitcoin product (Plus500 is a CFD service), and it wasn't long until other brokerages who offer CFD's got in on the act and begun to offer their clients Bitcoin CFD's. Following the lead of Plus500, well known retail Forex brokerage begun offering a Bitcoin CFD product on their platform. Those interested in learning more about Plus500 can do so here.

Now Plus500, has further ventured in the world of virtual currencies and has began offering a LiteCoin CFD product. Those not in the know, may be wondering what a LiteCoin is. LiteCoin is a virtual currency and a potential rival to Bitcoin, working in a similar way to the more established virtual currency. The main difference being the cryptology involved in mining LiteCoin is different and doesn't favor those with high computing devices in quite the same way, which means many people see LiteCoin as a more democratic virtual currency. Though exchanges using LiteCoin have struggled to survive with the worlds biggest LiteCoin exchange shutting down only a couple of months and ago, with it reaming to be seen whether there is much demand for LiteCoin trading products.

Plus500's experience with virtual currencies hasn't been plain sailing with the company having recently changed the conditions of its Bitcoin CFD product. Clients aren't allowed to roll positions overnight, with their being a fixed expiry date for every position entered into. These measures may have been in response to some of the difficulties involved in offering a Bitcoin CFD product, with their being no natural way to hedge Bitcoin positions brokerages are faced with a serious risk management problem. This has meant that spreads have typical been quite wide and that leverage has been rather limited, both helping brokerages limit their exposure to the volatility of these virtual currencies. By preventing clients from continually rolling over their positions the brokerage also helps limit their risk, which may be why both the Bitcoin and Litecoin CFD available at Plus500.