Litecoin has kicked off 2023 to a bright start as the crypto has surged 7% in the last 24 hours and has climbed to 12th on the market cap list.
Litecoin Starts 2023 On A Positive Note
2022 was a terrible year for the entire cryptocurrency sector as the long bear market resulted in losses of more than 50% for most of the coins. Litecoin was no exception; the asset ended the year with a drawdown of about 53%.
This year, however, may very well turn out to be different for LTC as the coin seems to have observed a strong start so far. At the time of writing, Litecoin is trading around $75, up 7% in the last 24 hours. The below chart displays the recent trend in the crypto’s price.
Looks like the value of the crypto has shot up during the past day | Source: LTCUSD on TradingView
The reason why this year could be better for LTC investors is that the next halving is set to take place this year. A “halving” is a periodic event where the block rewards of miners are permanently cut in half, meaning that the supply production of the coin itself is halved.
Related Reading: Most Public Crypto Firms Underperformed Bitcoin In 2022, Miners Hit Worst
Since supply being constrained like this makes the asset scarcer, such an event can have a bullish effect on the price. Therefore, Litecoin holders have been hoping that a rally would build up soon, ahead of the halving scheduled for this August.
As the graph shows, Litecoin has certainly already made a great start to the year, observing sharper upwards momentum than any other top coin. Though, currently, it’s unclear whether this would be the push that leads the coin to a proper halving rally, or if it’s another temporary rise before the real rally starts.
Despite LTC’s poor performance during 2022, there were still some positive takeaways for the coin. For example, the network processed over 39 million transactions in the year, a new record.
The Litecoin Network completed over 39 million transactions in 2022. A new record!
⚡$LTC⚡ pic.twitter.com/DXbnuur2tI
— Litecoin (@litecoin) December 31, 2022
Also, the chain added 52 million new addresses in 2022, the second highest out of all the cryptocurrencies.
Litecoin added 52 million new addresses to the network in 2022.
The second most of any crypto. #YearInReview pic.twitter.com/p5jAr9wZI0
— Litecoin (@litecoin) December 30, 2022
These achievements show that Litecoin is still very popular among users who want a reliable network for making cheap transactions, and continues to see more adoption.
Related Reading: Ethereum Finishes 2022 With ATH Correlation To Bitcoin, Despite The Merge
LTC Is Now The 12th Largest Crypto In The Sector
The recent amazing growth in Litecoin has meant that its standing on the top crypto by market cap list has improved. Here is a table that shows where LTC ranks among its peers now:
Shiba Inu (SHIB) seems to be 15th at the moment | Source: CoinMarketCap
As shown above, Litecoin has now overtaken Polkadot (DOT) to become the 12th largest coin in the market. Also, LTC’s cap is currently quite close to Dai (DAI), which means that with some more growth, the crypto can easily take the 11th spot from the stablecoin as well.