Litecoin Turns 12: Here’s How It Started

Alex Dovbnya

As Litecoin rings in its 12th year, it is an opportune moment to reflect on its journey, assess its current positioning on market

Litecoin, one of the pioneering cryptocurrencies, recently celebrated its 12th anniversary, marking a significant milestone in its history. From its inception as the “silver to Bitcoin’s gold” to its recent forays into NFTs, Litecoin’s journey is a rare example of longevity and resilience in the crypto world.  

Litecoin’s promise 

Introduced by Charlie Lee, a former Google engineer, Litecoin was designed to address some of the perceived inefficiencies of Bitcoin. Lee’s primary goal was to offer faster transaction confirmation times, targeting a new block every 2.5 minutes compared to Bitcoin’s 10 minutes. 

In its early years, Litecoin quickly garnered attention and adoption, partly because of its technological distinctions and partly due to its marketing position as the “silver” to Bitcoin’s “gold.”

Together with Bitcoin, this is one of the very few O.G. cryptocurrencies that remains relevant today. 

Presently, Litecoin sits in 15th place on the crypto market cap leaderboard, currently trading at $61.51. Over the past week, Litecoin’s price has seen a modest decrease of 5.1%, aligning with a general dip observed across multiple cryptocurrencies. Still, with a market capitalization surpassing $4.5 billion, Litecoin remains a major player in the industry.

Halving and NFTs 

Recent headlines in the crypto world highlighted Litecoin’s third “halving,” a prescheduled event where the rewards for mining the cryptocurrency are halved.

Additionally, the coin marked its entry into the trendy non-fungible token (NFT) space, with the Litecoin network recently introducing its first NFTs.

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Alex Dovbnya