Litecoin was the first major coin to activate SegWit in 2017, a major protocol upgrade that optimized block space.

LTC was widely marketed as the "silver to Bitcoin's gold," offering faster block times (2.5 minutes vs. BTC's 10) and lower fees. 2. Reasons to Buy in October 2017

There was growing excitement about the Lightning Network , a layer-2 solution for instant payments, which saw its first successful transaction on Litecoin months before Bitcoin.