Charlie Lee is a computer scientist and entrepreneur, best known as the inventor of Litecoin. He’s considered one of the earliest advocates of altcoins.
Personal history
Charlie Lee was born in the Ivory Coast in 1977 to Chinese parents. He lived there until around the age of 13 when he moved with his family to the United States. He graduated from Lawrenceville School in New Jersey in 1995, and went on to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in computer science. He subsequently achieved a Master’s degree, also in computer science.
Early career: Google and Founding of Litecoin
Following his graduation, Lee began his career as a Software Engineer at Kana Communications, followed by a stint at Google from 2007 to 2013. During his time at Google, he worked on projects including Chrome OS and the mobile version of YouTube.
In 2011, Charlie Lee discovered Bitcoin and became interested due to his background in computer science along with a keen interest in alternative economic systems and investments. He quickly set about developing his own version of a cryptocurrency, with his first attempt failing due to a 51% attack. However, he had already started developing Litecoin based on the Bitcoin Core client, which he released on the Bitcointalk forum in 2011 while he was still working at Google.
From the beginning, Lee had positioned Litecoin as a lightweight alternative to Bitcoin rather than a replacement, which for a time earned Litecoin the nickname “silver to Bitcoin’s gold.” It operates with a faster block time of 2.5 minutes compared to ten minutes on Bitcoin and with cheaper transaction fees.
Later career: Coinbase and the Litecoin Foundation
Lee left Google in 2013 for a role as Engineering Manager at Coinbase and was subsequently promoted to Director of Engineering. He left Coinbase in 2017 to focus full-time on the development of Litecoin as the Director of the Litecoin Foundation. The Litecoin Foundation is a nonprofit organization with the mission to “promote the adoption, awareness & development of Litecoin & its ecosystem.”
In 2017, Lee announced in a Reddit post that he had sold all of his LTC holdings. The move came following online criticism that his public statements about Litecoin and LTC had influenced the market. In the post, he said that holding LTC represented a “conflict of interest” for him, and he would only retain a few physical Litecoins as mementos.
In 2021, Lee joined BTCS, a publicly traded digital asset and blockchain company, as an independent appointee to its Board of Directors.
Between the bull markets of 2017 and 2024, Litecoin struggled to retain its market cap against stiff competition from many new and emerging projects. Even so, Lee has remained steadfast to Litecoin, maintaining his position as Director of the Litecoin Foundation. In July 2024, he announced he would personally match funding to the Litecoin Foundation up to the value of $250,000 per year for the next five years, to a total of $1.25 million.
In October 2024, the Litecoin Foundation made a joint announcement with digital asset investment firm Canary Capital that it had filed an application to launch an LTC ETF with the US Securities & Exchange Commission. The application cites Charlie Lee’s continuing heavy involvement with Litecoin, including contributions to the code.
As of early 2025, Lee remains the Director of the Litecoin Foundation and an independent Director at BTCS.
Charlie Lee essentials
- Charlie Lee is best known as the inventor of Litecoin (LTC), an early altcoin and lightweight alternative to Bitcoin, which he launched in 2011.
- Following a period where he developed Litecoin alongside a career as an engineer at Google and Coinbase, he became a full-time Director of the Litecoin Foundation in 2017.
- Even as LTC has fallen in the crypto market rankings over recent cycles, Lee has maintained his commitment to the development and adoption of Litecoin.