Litecoin Network Hashrate Hits All-Time High 70 Days Before Halvening
The Litecoin (LTC) network hash power hit nearly 380 TH/s on May 25, 2019, exceeding hash power from January 2018 and bringing it to its ATH. The cryptocurrency is a little over 70 days away from its halvening and is surging in terms of hashrate and the number of transactions.
Block reward halvenings have historically been lucrative wealth creation events due to the reduction in addition to supply.
Litecoin Goes Berserk
With just over two months until the halvening, Litecoin activity is booming. The past year has also been extremely eventful in terms of partnerships and fundamentals with the Litecoin Foundation sponsoring UFC 232 where Jon Jones best Alex Gustafson.
The network hash rate peaked at 380 TH/s compared to its previous ATH at 340 TH/s in May 2018. An influx of transactions always accompanies bull markets, but these are mostly trading-based transaction and not for direct payments.
Many factors could be contributing to the sudden surge. The launch of Flexa, which allows users to pay at supermarkets using cryptocurrency, may very well be at the top. Retail adoption has been a critical component for Litecoin’s scaling goals. With high fees on the Bitcoin network, it is possible that users prefer to transact using LTC or BCH, which have much lower costs.
The positive sentiment across cryptocurrencies, in general, may be another contributing factor to the use of Litecoin. Many people who were dejected by the bear market have returned using their networks of preference again.
Another plausible theory is that certain miners have shifted to LTC to take advantage of the current high block reward before it drops again.
The speculation can go on and on, but the real reason cannot be deduced to one single factor. A culmination of all of these reasons has led to the positive sentiment which has been a driving force in crypto’s resurgence since late April 2019.
The Halvening Is Upon Us
One of the biggest reasons for LTC bulls to rejoice is the upcoming halvening. With Bitcoin, each halvening has historically led to one of its famed bull runs of thousands of percentage points.
Litecoin is one difficulty measure behind Bitcoin. The block reward for Litecoin is reducing from 25 LTC per block to 12.5 LTC per block. Sometime around May 2020, BTC’s block reward will drop from 12.5 to 6.25 BTC per block.
With retail adoption starting to take off and a potential bull run within grasp, Litecoin may be set to break its ATH price in the coming months.