Following the announcement by the cryptocurrency exchange EDX that LTC would be listed alongside three other well-known digital currencies, the value of the crypto asset Litecoin (LTC) has increased by over 40% versus the US dollar over the last two weeks. Additionally, with just 30 days left before its block reward subsidy drops from 12.5 LTC to 6.25 LTC, Litecoin is about to experience a reward halving.
EDX, backed by Charles Schwab, Citadel Securities, and Fidelity Digital Assets, announced its plans to list BTC, ETH, BCH, and LTC thirteen days ago. BCH and LTC have outperformed many other digital assets over the previous two weeks since the exchange launched. LTC has climbed 13.7% in 30 days and 40% versus the U.S. dollar in the previous two weeks. LTC has gained 119.7% year-to-date, placing it in the top 10 cryptocurrencies.
LTC ranks ninth on CMC and 10th on coingecko.com. CMC excludes lido’s staked ether (STETH) from the top 10, however, coingecko.com does. LTC was trading between $110 and $114 per unit at 8:00 a.m. ET on July 3, 2023, with a market capitalization of just over $8 billion. LTC traded $1.274 billion on Monday, eighth among roughly 10,000 crypto assets. On Monday, tether (USDT) was the most traded LTC pair on Coinbase.
Since June 19, Litecoin has added 100 terahash per second (TH/s) of hashpower. Its dedicated hashrate is now 760 TH/s, up from 660 TH/s. Litecoin hashpower reached an all-time high this year due to the hashrate increase. At block height 2,499,942, Litecoin’s hashrate achieved 958.36 TH/s. Over the past 24 hours, Viabtc has contributed 254.91 TH/s to LTC mining, leading 22 pools.
The Litecoin network is preparing for a reward halving on August 3, 2023, in 30 days. This event will cut the subsidy by 50% to 6.25 LTC. With 17,000 LTC blocks left till the next halving, blocks are mined every 2.5 minutes. 73,280,183 LTC currently in circulation, with 10,717,762 blocks left till the block subsidy ends. Today, 7,145,978 unique addresses possess LTC, with the top ten wallets holding 13.58% of the supply. The top 100 holders control 38.58% of LTC’s supply, according to rich list data.
Like bitcoin cash (BCH), only time will tell if LTC’s price, hashrate, and activity will survive the EDX announcement and forthcoming halving. Like bitcoin (BTC), LTC prices rise before each block reward halving. LTC was a top ten market cap challenger for many years in its early days, but it has been a long time since. Despite a 119.7% year-to-date advance, LTC is 73% below its all-time peak of $410 per unit on May 10, 2021.
