Litecoin soars to over $100

Litecoin’s halving event is less than five weeks away. The approaching date is causing a significant rise in the network’s hash rate, which has already reached an all-time high. This, in turn, has caused the price of Litecoin (LTC) to rise by more than 15% over the past week. At the time of writing, Litecoin has crossed the crucial $100 mark.

Litecoin blasts past $100 amid surging hash rate, upcoming 'halving' https://t.co/FcXlgk5dPk

— The Block (@TheBlock__) June 30, 2023

Litecoin hashrate soars as halving approaches

Halving is a feature of Proof-of-Work blockchains. This is the case of Bitcoin, for example, and of course Litecoin, the fork of the queen of cryptocurrencies. The event is scheduled for August 02, 2023 at block 2,520,000. The event will cause the rate of new coin issuance to fall by 50%, which in turn will slow the rate at which new tokens enter the market.

In this context, there has been a significant increase in the hashrate, a metric used to measure the computing power devoted to the Litecoin blockchain. According to data from BitInfoCharts, this rate has almost doubled over the past year, peaking at 797.5 Terahashes per second on Tuesday. Currently, it stands at around 758 Th/s.

LTC tops $100, how high will it go?

Litecoin passed the crucial $100 mark on Friday, June 30. This rise is directly due to the booming hash rate. In addition, growing anticipation of the upcoming “halving” event may also be to blame. The LTC token, dubbed by some as “the very first altcoin”, is trading at over $106. This represents an increase of almost 20% over the past 24 hours. In total, since the start of the year, Litecoin’s price has risen by around 45%.

It’s hardly a surprise that the price of a cryptocurrency rises in the run-up to an event such as halving. What’s more interesting is how investors will behave between now and August 2. More interestingly, could Litecoin hold this price after its halving?