Litecoin rises sharply in the run-up to a new halving

The comparison between litecoin (LTC) and bitcoin (BTC) is quickly made in the world of cryptocurrencies. While people often refer to bitcoin as digital gold, litecoin is also referred to as digital silver. These two cryptocurrencies are both decentralized peer to peer currency that have been around for a long time. The Litecoin software code is even based on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Charlie Lee, the creator of Litecoin, created the “digital silver” because he was dissatisfied with the long waiting times of bitcoin transactions. LTC, he says, is more intended to serve as a daily means of payment, where bitcoin is more of a store of value would be.

Litecoin has the block time of Bitcoin divided by 4, so that instead of 10 minutes it is only 2.5 minutes.

LTC halving

Like BTC, LTC is experiencing a so-called halving. This means that the rewards for mining a new block are halved. However, for digital silver, this event is scheduled a year earlier than for bitcoin. The upcoming Litecoin halving is scheduled for August 2023. The block reward will then be halved from 12.5 LTC to 6.25 LTC. At the next Bitcoin halving, scheduled for March 2024, rewards on the network will be halved from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.

Litecoin price

The price of litecoin has risen considerably in recent times, which is most likely related to the upcoming halving. In the past month, the price has increased by about 41% to $77. During the same period, other major cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum (ETH) are down 19% and 26% respectively. The LTC/BTC pair even rose to its highest point of all of 2022. It made a gain of no less than 50% against bitcoin.

According to data from CoinMarketCap LTC is also the strongest climber over the past seven days and the price is up about 12% in the past 24 hours.