Litecoin Mining Difficulty Hits Record High Despite Value Dip
Litecoin Mining: Impressive Statistics, but Declining LTC Value
Despite impressive mining statistics, Litecoin (LTC) could not maintain its value. Litecoin, one of the largest Proof-of-Work (PoW) networks, experienced a surge in its mining difficulty to all-time highs (ATH), making it harder for miners to validate transactions and bring new coins into circulation.
Increase in Mining Difficulty
According to an analysis of the Litecoin Space data, the mining difficulty reached 34.58 million at the time of writing. This marks an increase in difficulty of 8.4% in the last week and over 20% year-to-date (YTD).
Signs of a Secure Network
The jump in mining difficulty came in response to a sharp increase in the network hash rate, which recently rose to 1.03 PetaHashes per second (PH/s). After a slump in mid-December, the hash rate has steadily increased and was 21% higher at the time of the press release than year-to-date.
As is well known, the mining difficulty is periodically adjusted based on the total network hash rate. This is done to ensure that the time to generate a new block remains constant, i.e., 2.5 minutes on the Litecoin blockchain.
LTC Investors Not Impressed
Despite the positive mining indicators, the LTC price could not convince. The “Digital Silver” fell by 2.72% in recent months and was 38% below its 2023 high, which was reached shortly after its halving. This price drop led to a fall in the overall profitability of the network.
A Sign of Better Times?
Despite the shrinking market value of LTC, there was a silver lining on the horizon. The NVT ratio, which negatively correlates with transaction volumes, has been steadily declining in recent months. This means that network usage is exceeding market capital growth, which is historically interpreted as a bullish signal in the long term.
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Sources: Litecoin Space, Santiment
| Symbol | LTC |
| Coin type | Alt Coin |
| Transaction Speed | Medium |
| Pros |
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| Cons |
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| Price | $72.59 |
| 24h % | 1.03 % |
| 7d % | 4.89 % |
| 30d % | 6.62 % |
| 60d % | 10.82 % |
| 1y % | 6.74 % |
| Market Cap | $5,454,314,341.00 |
| Max. Supply | 84,000,000.00 |
| Official Links | Website | Source Code |
| Socials | Reddit | X | Message Board |
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