The Litecoin blockchain has recently completed its halving event, bringing block rewards down to 6.25 Litecoin (LTC) per block.
Block Rewards Halved, Reset for Next Cycle
On August 2, at block 2,520,000, the Litecoin halving procedure took place. As a result, the amount of LTC miners can earn from each block mined has been cut in half, resetting the timer for the next halving due in approximately four years.
Charlie Lee, the founder of Litecoin, addressed the variations between the different halving countdown timers. Despite some inconsistencies, he indicated that the NiceHash timer was the most accurate and all agreed on an August 2 date.
Despite this milestone, LTC prices have been on a downward trend since early July when they reached over $110, the highest since April 2022. At present, Litecoin’s value is approximately $92, roughly the same as it was two weeks ago.
Rising Adoption of Litecoin in Payments
Stephen Pair, the CEO of BitPay, spoke about Litecoin’s growing adoption as a payment method. He said Litecoin and Bitcoin Lightning payments have recently experienced their most prosperous months on the global payments platform.
By June, Litecoin had overtaken Bitcoin as the preferred cryptocurrency for payments on BitPay, accounting for 35% of transactions. Over the past 30 days, BitPay reported processing 57,949 crypto-related transactions.
While the majority of the company’s market is in North America, Europe, and the United Kingdom, Pair noted significant growth in crypto payments in Africa. “More merchants and spenders are replacing traditional banking systems with cryptocurrency in Africa,” Pair said. He also predicted a rise in activity from Latin American BitPay merchants and customers over the next few years.
Litecoin’s Current Status in the Crypto Market
At present, Litecoin ranks as the 12th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, boasting a value of $6.8 billion. Out of a maximum supply of 84 million, there are currently 73.5 million LTC in circulation.
