Litecoin is one of the oldest cryptocurrencies out there and started as a fork of Bitcoin’s code in 2011 that integrated several notable changes. It has no smart contract capabilities like Ethereum or any other fancy tech that is part of new projects like Fantom, Avalanche or Solana. Despite that lack of hipness, Litecoin is pumping.

Why is LTC on the rise and what can we expect from Litecoin in the future?

Long-term holders are hoarding

To be perfectly honest, there is no immediate reason or event that was responsible or could be connected to the price surge that we witnessed in the last 48 hours. LTC rose about 35 % in that time and outperformed Bitcoin which is coming under heavy pressure due to the bad news that Genesis Trading could potentially face bankruptcy in the US.

Blockchain data suggests that long-term holders are adding to their positions and increasing their total LTC stack. This is very important since this behavior suggests that there might be no additional selling pressure in the near future that could potentially ruining the party.

Another factor that comes into play is the rising hash rate of Litecoin that reached an all-time high in November 2022. Like Bitcoin, Litecoin is one of the last blockchains that relies on mining even though LTC is using a different algorithm than BTC for consensus.

Partnerships and the Halving

The last couple of months have been fruitful for Litecoin, since the Litecoin Foundation is continues working in the background to establish LTC as a cryptocurrency for fast and secure payments. MoneyGram introduced LTC on its crypto platform at the beginning of this month.

The company ended the partnership with Ripple after the SEC took them to court over the question if XRP is a security. Ever since MoneyGram shifted to classic cryptocurrencies that are considered to be commodities without a doubt in the US.

With the Litecoin halving more than 200 days away, it seems that MoneyGrams Litecoin integration could be another piece in the puzzle why the LTC price is moving. It remains to be seen if Litecoin can keep up this momentum despite the fact that the market is still facing as very difficult time. Should its growth continue Litecoin could become a top 10 crypto asset. According to its market cap it is currently ranked the 13^th biggest cryptocurrency and the 9^th biggest if not taking the stablecoins USDT, USDC, BUSD, and DAI into account.