Bitcoin may have caught all the attention last year with its gravity-defying run, but another cryptocurrency was catapulted into view with an even more aggressive price spike.
Litecoin, a digital currency founded two years after Bitcoin, has shot up more than 8,000 per cent in the past year, a faster rise than the price of Bitcoin's which has topped $19,000 from around $1,000 in January.
Litecoin shot to more than $325 on December 11, up from around $4 at the start of the year. However, it has more than halved in value falling back to about $150 since then
Growing interest in Bitcoin has boosted other cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum and Litecoin, as they are caught up in the craze. Some users are thought to be buying into Litecoin simply to diversify away from it, others see it as a potentially more useful alternative to Bitcoin as a practical currency.