Litecoin Price
(LTC)| Market Cap | $7,822,658,102 USD |
| 24h Volume | $1,087,327,522 USD (18.66%) |
| Circulating Supply | 75,330,300 LTC |
| Total Supply | 84,000,000 LTC |
Litecoin Price Chart
What Is Litecoin's Price Today?
Litecoin (LTC) is trading at $103.84 USD, increasing by 18.66% since yesterday. Litecoin has traded $1,087,327,522 USD in the last 24 hours.
Litecoin (LTC) is the #24 largest cryptocurrency by market cap as of December 21, 2024, with a market cap of $7,822,658,102 USD.
What Is Litecoin Cryptocurrency (LTC)?
If Bitcoin is digital gold then Litecoin is digital silver. At least, that’s what some people in the crypto community say. Whether that narrative plays out in the long term remains to be see. Litecoin, however, does have a few things going for it.
To start, Litecoin uses Bitcoin’s source code. A few changes were made (more on that later) but by and large, Bitcoin and Litecoin are built on the same code. So just as there have been no glaring flaws that have crippled Bitcoin, Litecoin has not had any major problems either.
The major difference between the two coins is confirmation time. On average Bitcoin confirmation times (how long it takes a new block to be created) are ten minutes. For Litecoin the confirmation times are only two-and-a-half minutes.
Faster blocks means transactions are settled faster, making Litecoin more suitable for day to day purchases.
Also, it’s interesting to note that Litecoin in 2011, not long after Bitcoin. That makes it one of the oldest crypto coins on the market. In that time the Litecoin price has fluctuated wildly but the coin has consistently been in the top 10 for market cap. The Litecoin market cap is often similar to that of Bitcoin Cash’s.
Litecoin also differs from Bitcoin in that Satoshi Nakamoto (the creator of Bitcoin) has never been identified and he/she/they long ago disappeared from the crypto ecosystem.
Litecoin, however, was created by , a talented programmer who is still active in Litecoin’s development. Lee is not immune to controversy, however.
In December of 2017 when the price of Litecoin was at an all-time high, Lee announced that he was . Timing wise it was a brilliant move, however, it left many Litecoin investors feeling somewhat betrayed.
How Does Litecoin Work?
Both Bitcoin and Litecoin use a POW (Proof of Work) consensus mechanism, although Litecoin’s is tweaked somewhat in an attempt to make it harder for ASIC miners to dominate those with less powerful rigs.
That has helped to make Litecoin easier to mine for the average person, however, large mining operations still hold a majority of the hashpower. Fixing this problem is incredibly difficult and even Monero, which to throw off ASIC miners, still hasn’t quite solved it.
Another interesting design of Litecoin, one that may help to explain the difference between the BTC and LTC price, is the number of possible coins. As everyone knows, there will only ever be 21 million Bitcoin. Litecoin, on the other hand, can have up to .
It’s hard to say where the Litecoin price will be in five or ten years. The problem it seems is that, apart from longevity, Litecoin doesn’t really do anything special. and are faster, is more secure, has smart contracts, etc.
Still, Litecoin may have found its niche as digital silver and the LTC/USD price may remain high for years to come. We’re still in the early years of crypto and nobody knows what’s going to happen. Still, if history is any judge then the Litecoin price could easily exceed its old all time high.
How Many Litecoin Coins Are There?
There are currently 75,330,300 Litecoin coins circulating out of a max supply of 84,000,000.
