Litecoin Price Hits $100 as Miner Block Rewards Get Halved

All eyes were on Litecoin (LTC) price Aug. 5 as its block reward halving failed to excite markets and produce considerable gains for investors.

Litecoin 7-day price chart. Source: Coin360

LTC gains fail to materialize

Data from Coin360 showed Litecoin, which is the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, trading at around $104 Monday, a few hours after the halving took place.

Once the process completes, miners will gain just 12.5 LTC per block of mined transactions, instead of the current 25 LTC. While not guaranteed, this increased scarcity has the ability to push up the price of a token, Cointelegraph reporting on anticipation building prior to Bitcoin’s (BTC) next halving in May 2020. 

For Litecoin, the halving did finally delivered a boost with LTC/USD gaining just 13% over the past 24 hours. 

Bitcoin, however, outperformed Litecoin and all other altcoins in the top twenty as the week began, rising by close to 10% on the back of increased geopolitical tensions centered on China. 

“In the bear market, a lot of traders saw the Litecoin halving as a good fundamental trade and it became pretty crowded,” Eric Turner, director of research at blockchain analytics firm Messari, meanwhile told news outlet Al Jazeera Aug. 3 about the Litecoin halving.

He added:

“Now that the halving is here, some investors are starting to exit the trade. Halvings tend to be priced in, so the event itself isn't the positive catalyst that many expect.”

Cointelegraph has published a dedicated guide to the Litecoin halving, collecting the major theories on what it could mean for the token in the short and long term.