Litecoin, one of the pioneering cryptocurrencies, recently celebrated its 12th anniversary, marking an important milestone in its history. From its beginnings 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 world of cryptocurrencies.
The promise of Litecoin
Introduced by Charlie Lee, a former Google engineer, Litecoin was designed to address some of Bitcoin’s perceived inefficiencies. Lee’s main 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 attracted attention and adoption, partly due to its technological distinctions and partly due to its marketing position as the “silver” to Bitcoin’s “gold.”
Along with Bitcoin, this is one of the few OG cryptocurrencies that is still relevant today.
Currently, Litecoin is ranked 15th in the crypto market capitalization ranking and is currently trading at $61.51. Over the past week, the price of Litecoin saw a modest 5.1% decline, in line with an overall decline seen across multiple cryptocurrencies. Still, with a market capitalization exceeding $4.5 billion, Litecoin remains a major player in the industry.
Halving and NFT
Recent headlines in the cryptocurrency world highlighted Litecoin’s third “halving,” a pre-scheduled event where rewards for mining the cryptocurrency are cut in half.
Additionally, the coin marked its entry into the modern non-fungible token (NFT) space, with the Litecoin network recently introducing its first NFTs.
