$81.7
-$5.42 (-6.2%)
24H
Min
$0
Max
$0
Price
Volume
A measure of how much of a cryptocurrency was traded in the last 24 hours.
$1.003B
Market cap
The total market value of a cryptocurrency's circulating supply. It is analogous to the free-float capitalization in the stock market. Market Cap = Current Price x Circulating Supply.
$6.249B
Max supply
The maximum amount of coins that will ever exist in the lifetime of the cryptocurrency. It is analogous to the fully diluted shares in the stock market.
$84M
Official site
litecoin.org
Explorer
blockchair.com/litecoin
Source code
github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin
Price

Litecoin was one the earliest crypto success stories. As its name suggests it was designed to function like Bitcoin, but with a lighter consensus process which sacrifices security, and total supply, for faster/cheaper transactions.

It was launched in 2011, initially as an open source protocol and then later as a fully issued live network. Across the globe more than 2,000 merchants accept Litecoin and since its inception it has consistently been within or close to the top 10 coins in terms of trading volume. 

Charlie Lee - the founder of Litecoin and former Google Engineer - originally envisioned the project as  a “lite” version of Bitcoin aimed at providing the same benefits of sound money as Bitcoin, but in a more easily accessible, faster way. 

Litecoin shares a very similar proof-of-work consensus method to Bitcoin, meaning that as mining continues circulating supply of the coin gradually expands. The key difference is that new blocks are mined every 2.5 minutes - compared to 10 minutes for Bitcoin - which allows for extremely low transaction fees.

This makes Litecoin suitable for micro-transactions and point-of-sale payments. These factors make the coin particularly appealing in developing countries where transaction fees are crucial for coin utility. 

Recently, the Litecoin foundation estimated that it will be over 100 years until the supply cap of 84 million is reached as the reward for mining LTC decreases every 4 years. 

Who is using Litecoin?

Litecoin is quite similar to Bitcoin Cash. Following its launch back in 2011 there was intense interest  and then, as shown by Google Trends there was a large peak in 2017 followed by a considerable drop off, corresponding with the Bear Market. Interest has grown again, as part of the 2021 bull market, but Litecoin has lost its place as a top 10 coin by market capitalisation and may struggle to remain relevant as new projects, with much more diversified applications come along.

Like Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin’s primary value proposition is in its utility, and positioning as one of the earliest cryptocurrencies. It doesn't have a huge development team and cannot lay claim to challenge Bitcoin or Ethereum, but has  still seen significant price appreciation. 

The use case for low value transactions is clear within Google Trends the location data but to a lesser extent than Bitcoin Cash. Developing nations show strong interest in Litecoin but so does the United States. This is likely because Litecoin is one of the most widely accepted cryptocurrencies, and of the 2,000 merchants that do accept it, most of them are located within the US. 

What is the size of the Litecoin network?

There is a total circulating supply of over 66 million Litecoin with the max supply being set at 84 million. This cap again, like BTC and BCH isn’t expected to be reached for at least another 100 years as rewards for mining decrease over time. 

Litecoin has a wide variety of fiat pairings - rare for a cryptocurrency - as well as being accepted by many merchants around the world. 2020 saw the release of a testnet aimed at testing increased security and privacy on the network. Once these tests have been complete and brought to the main chain, Litecoin could see adoption grow even further as microtransactions become more popular across web applications. 

Until this happens meaningful use of the network will remain modest. As of May 2021 Litecoin generated just $17,000 per day in fees, compared to Bitcoin at $5.7 million, which is surprising for a coin that existed for 10 years and is ranked 11th by market capitalisation.

What is the size of the Litecoin community?

Litecoin has a medium sized community following.. The official twitter account has just under 620,000 followers worth around half of that (310,000) members on Reddit. 

How much Litecoin is traded?

Litecoin has a strong average daily trading volume of over $12 billion making it one of the most traded cryptocurrencies. It’s available to trade across most large crypto exchanges, including Binance, Huobi, Coinbase Pro and Gate. The most popular trading pairs are LTC/USDT LTC/USD LTC/BTC.