- Litecoin has gained 36% over the past year as the network celebrates its 14th anniversary since its 2011 launch.
- Currently, the cryptocurrency has a U.S. ETF, unprecedented network usage, and a market value of around $7.78 billion.
In October 2011, Charlie Lee, then a Google engineer, released Litecoin (LTC) as a fork of Bitcoin’s (BTC) codebase, describing it simply as a “fun side project.” Designed to improve on Bitcoin’s parameters, introducing faster block times, lower transaction fees, and a higher supply cap, Litecoin positioned itself as the “silver” to Bitcoin’s “gold.”
Fast-forward fourteen years, and Litecoin now stands as one of the oldest actively used cryptocurrencies, ranking #19 with a market capitalization of $7.78 billion.
Lee reflects on X, explaining:
I created Litecoin as a fun side project in 2011. 14 years later, institutions are adding it to their balance sheets and can access it through traditional markets. Wild to think that it will outlive me.
Building on his legacy, SilentSwap, a leading non-custodial platform for privacy-focused cross-chain digital asset swaps, announced that Charlie Lee has joined the team ahead of the upcoming launch of SilentSwap V2. With over a decade of experience in cryptocurrency development, Lee brings invaluable expertise to the platform.
What Has Defined Litecoin’s Path
Litecoin’s design has long incorporated several key differences from Bitcoin, innovations that have helped the cryptocurrency maintain its relevance over more than a decade. Its block time is approximately 2.5 minutes, compared to Bitcoin’s roughly 10 minutes, enabling faster transaction confirmations and making Litecoin more practical for everyday use.
The network also utilizes Scrypt rather than SHA-256 as its hashing algorithm, originally intended to make mining more accessible and distributed across a broader range of participants. In addition, Litecoin set a maximum supply of 84 million coins, quadrupling Bitcoin’s 21 million.
Institutional interest in Litecoin has gained momentum in 2025, exemplified by the launch of the Canary Fund Litecoin spot ETF on October 28, listed on Nasdaq under the ticker LTCC. As the first U.S. Litecoin ETF, this is a sign of the cryptocurrency’s growing credibility.
In our recent update, we reported that WisdomTree has filed a Form S-1 seeking to launch the WisdomTree Coindesk 20 Fund on the NYSE, which would include Litecoin. Additional spot ETFs from Grayscale, CoinShares, and REX-Osprey are pending approval and expected to begin trading soon.
The Litecoin network has achieved three million processed blocks and celebrates 14 years of uninterrupted uptime, a testament to its stability and resilience.
Over the weekend, CNF reported, citing Santiment, that two key factors are fueling Litecoin’s recent momentum: a 6% increase in wallets holding over 100,000 LTC whales over the past three months and an all-time high daily on-chain volume of $15.1 billion.
On Tuesday, LTC traded near $102, having surged more than 17% over the past week, closing above a key resistance level of $100.30.
The derivatives market shows a trading volume of $1.56 billion, representing a 39.09% decrease, while open interest stands at $490.27 million, down 10.04%, reflecting a moderate consolidation in leveraged positions. The total value locked in DeFi applications using Litecoin is currently $2.12 million.