According to data from BitPay, a leading global cryptocurrency payment service provider, Litecoin overtook Bitcoin last month as the most popular cryptocurrency used for transactions. Litecoin founder Charlie Lee once referred to Litecoin as the silver of Bitcoin’s gold and emphasized that Litecoin is his preferred option for payments. Today, Litecoin has become one of the preferred options for most cryptocurrency users.
As one of the first cryptocurrencies, Litecoin has long been known as the leading altcoin, living in the shadow of Bitcoin. However, as the halving approaches, Litecoin has recently put up strong momentum, with the network hash rate, trading volume, liquidity, and daily new addresses increasing, with some of the figures even have reached all-time highs.
LTC Hash Rate Surpasses 1,000 TH/s For The First Time
According to its blockchain explorer, the LTC hash rate has seen steady growth over the past month and reached 1.03 PH/s at block 2,503,485 on July 3, a new record high. This is a sign that miners continue to join the LTC mining community. The higher hash rate also means that the network is now more secure and stable. According to some industry analysts, hash rate increases often signal upcoming price growth.
In the last week alone, Litecoin added 4,013 new blocks, of which 1,398 were from ViaBTC, the largest LTC mining pool. Only 11,782 blocks remain, which are expected to be mined in less than 20 days, until the next LTC halving.
Source: LitecoinSpace
LTC adoption hits an all-time high
On June 23, the Litecoin team tweeted that “payment usage is at an all-time high,” with 167 million transactions. As the number of LTC transactions continues to grow, the daily transaction fee income will also increase, attracting a large number of miners to the LTC community.
Litecoin ranks fifth in liquidity.
Liquidity is essential in the cryptocurrency market. For investors, a highly liquid cryptocurrency promises a better trading experience and more flexible trading strategies. Having high liquidity means that investors can easily buy and sell the cryptocurrency without affecting its price much. In short, high liquidity guarantees stable prices and prevents market manipulation.
According to Kaiko’s Liquidity Ranking for Q2 Crypto Assets, which covered data from more than 30 exchanges, Litecoin now ranks fifth in liquidity, surpassing SOL and BNB.
Source: Kaiko
Litecoin’s Open Ecosystem Sparks LRC20 Boom
In addition to the impending halving scheduled for August, Litecoin also owes its recent momentum to the adoption of the LTC20 standard. Since the Litecoin community released LTC20, a forked version of BRC20, on May 2 of this year, the standard has been recognized as an important contribution to the prosperity of the Litecoin ecosystem.
To compare BRC20 with LTC20, we must first take a look at BTC and LTC. Bitcoin generates a block every 10 minutes, while Litecoin produces a block every 2.5 minutes, allowing for faster confirmations. Additionally, Litecoin offers extremely low gas fees of less than $0.1 per transaction, while Bitcoin transaction fees range from tens to hundreds of dollars. It is evident that Litecoin has more advantages in terms of block speed, flexibility and transaction costs.
The invention of the LTC20 standard allows the issuance of tokenized assets in Litecoin. This integration opens up new avenues for developers to build DeFi, DApps, NFTs, and other cryptocurrency-based tokenized assets on the network.
From SegWit to the Lightning Network to the MWEB privacy protocol, the Litecoin network has always been a powerhouse of innovation. As a mature cryptocurrency, Litecoin has made great strides in recent years. In addition, the open ecosystem of the coin and its forward-looking vision lay a solid foundation for its future development.
In the future, as the digital economy continues to evolve and the cryptocurrency market expands, Litecoin is expected to play an even greater role as a fundamental part of the digital economy and as a tool for global payments and transfers.
