The altcoin market was eagerly anticipating the completion of the Litecoin halving event, which has now officially taken place. This major event in the Litecoin network has generated significant interest, with many questioning its potential impact on the price of LTC.
Block Rewards Now Halved At 6.25 LTC
The Litecoin network has successfully undergone its halving event, reducing the block rewards from 12.5 LTC to 6.25 Litecoin per block.
On the 2nd of August, the automated halving process was triggered on the Litecoin blockchain at block 2,520,000. This has resulted in LTC miners now receiving half the previous rewards, setting the stage for the next halving event, which is expected to occur in approximately four years.
Charlie Lee, the founder of Litecoin, addressed the inconsistencies among various halving countdown timers, endorsing the NiceHash timer as the most precise. Despite minor differences, all timers concurred on the halving event taking place on August 2. This marked the third halving event for the network since Litecoin was first introduced in 2011.
BitPay CEO Stephen Pair recently commented on the increasing use of Litecoin as a payment method. He noted that both Litecoin and Bitcoin Lightning payments have recently recorded their highest usage months on the global payments platform.
As of June, Litecoin has overtaken Bitcoin as the preferred cryptocurrency for payments on BitPay, making up 35% of transactions. Over the past 30 days, BitPay reports having processed a total of 57,949 transactions related to cryptocurrency.
For those unfamiliar with the term, a “halving” is a scheduled event in the life of certain cryptocurrencies where the reward for mining new blocks is cut in half. This effectively reduces the rate at which new coins are created and slows the overall inflation rate of the cryptocurrency.
LTC Price Continues To Decline
In the immediate aftermath of the halving, the price of Litecoin showed a slight decrease. Historically, Litecoin’s price has shown a tendency to rise in the months following a halving event. After the first halving in 2015, the price of LTC increased significantly over the following year. Similarly, the second halving in 2019 was followed by a period of price growth.
Since reaching a peak of $115 in early July, the first time since April 2022, Litecoin prices have been on a downward trend. Currently, the cryptocurrency, often referred to as the silver to Bitcoin’s gold, is trading around $89.5, declining over 3.5% in the last 24 hours.
With a market capitalization of $6.5 billion, Litecoin ranks as the 11th largest cryptocurrency. Its daily trading volume stands at approximately 800 million.
At present, there are 73.5 million LTC in circulation, out of a maximum supply of 84 million.