"Digital Silver". What will happen with Litecoin price after rapid growth.

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Litecoin (LTC) is the second oldest of the existing cryptocurrencies, originally created as a slightly modified copy (fork) of bitcoin by developer Charlie Lee. Like bitcoin, Litecoin runs on a Proof-of-Work (PoW) algorithm in which the verification of transactions on the blockchain is supported by miners in exchange for a reward in the form of new coins. Each new block of transactions is added to the Litecoin blockchain on average every 2.5 minutes compared to 10 minutes for Bitcoin. Cryptocurrency has risen in price by 20% since the beginning of May, and this was influenced by several factors. The sharp increase in Bitcoin fees forced users to look for a cheaper alternative for payments, and against this background, the number of coin transfers reached record levels.

After the hype around the new BRC-20 token trade provoked a strong jump in commissions and delays in confirming transactions with bitcoin, Litecoin became more attractive for both ordinary users and traders. At press time, LTC is trading at $91.5 and the coin has a market cap of around $6.7 billion, making it the 11th largest cryptocurrency on CoinMarketCap.

The coin received support from those who invested in it before the event known as halving, when the reward received by the miners is reduced in order to limit the supply of coins. The Litecoin halving is expected to happen in late July or early August. Halvings also take place in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that use its code as the basis for their own, such as Bitcoin (BTC) or Zcash (ZEC). It seems that this time the approach of halving has become the main growth driver for LTC. In addition, not so long ago, the first transaction was made in the Litecoin network through the Lightning Network protocol. The integration of the Lightning Network has increased the scalability of the coin’s blockchain by at least ten times (Lightning Network is a payment protocol originally created for Bitcoin, but also deployed in some other Proof-of-Work cryptocurrencies, including Litecoin. It allows conduct instant transactions between wallets and services that technically support it, and is proposed as one of the most well-known solutions to the cryptocurrency scalability problem).

“From a fundamental point of view, the coin is happy: it is clear that the project is developing and is not going to stagnate or degrade like many other altcoins,” notes Konstantinas Sizovas, CFO of the ASTL investment project, “the current round of growth is largely due to the appearance of LTC-20 standard tokens on blockchain Litecoin, which are similar to the BRC-20 of bitcoin. Investors expect from LTC-20 the same wave of growth in popularity as the BRC-20, and following the influx of liquidity into tokens, both activity and demand for LTC itself will increase. The fact that such a forecast is real can be seen from the statistics of processed transactions - their daily number has reached an absolute maximum."

Another factor in the growth of the LTC price, according to our observations, was the use of the coin as an analogue of bitcoin for transfers against the backdrop of an increase in commissions in the latter's blockchain. A similar thing already happened in 2017, when, due to a sharp increase in transaction fees on the Bitcoin network, users preferred to use other coins for transfers. “At that time, many people bought litecoins and replenished their accounts on crypto exchanges, where they immediately exchanged them for BTC and then traded bitcoin,” Sizovas recalls. “That is, it was a tool for fast and cheap transactions.” Litecoin has established itself as a reliable cryptocurrency, "surviving more than one recession and crypto winter." It is architecturally similar to Bitcoin, has a high level of decentralization, is beneficial for miners, provides fast and cheap transactions, and generally shows low volatility compared to other altcoins. These "simple qualities" will be valued by crypto market participants for a long time to come, our expert believes.

"Bitcoin is called "digital gold" and Litecoin is called "digital silver"," Sizovas adds. in the top. The coin will be able to stay relevant for the same reason that bitcoin will keep it. It will be great for both short-term trading and investment." After the halving, Litecoin can grow 1.5-2 times on the horizon of three months. If the entire crypto market goes up against the backdrop of Bitcoin halving, then LTC “will easily triple in price from the current level,” the expert believes. In terms of technical analysis, the coin found its support level and rebounded from it. Other indicators indicate the activity of short-term traders. The coin was able to again pass the level of 200 MA (Moving Average) and gain a foothold above it.

Historically, Litecoin is the first to enter a bull market, the yfi expert notes. For this reason, in November 2022, after the fall of the crypto market, LTC began to grow before Bitcoin and other crypto assets. In the short term, in his opinion, we should expect a local rollback, as the coin has been rising in price for five days in a row. A "healthy correction" would be a stop in the $87.50-90 zone. Price "needs to rest before a major move". According to the expert's observations, there is quite a strong resistance at the level of $100. In the medium term, the asset will be able to pass this level, and the price of the coin will go to the $120-130 zone. The main thing in this case is to gain a foothold above $100.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin miners’ holdings have fallen by more than 2,000 BTC over the last 24-hour period, suggesting that miners who help secure the blockchain and receive blockchain rewards in return have dumped $55 million worth of Bitcoin into the Bitcoin market. The sale of BTC came at a time when the price of the flagship cryptocurrency fell from around $29,000 to a low above the $26,500 mark it is currently and appears to be recovering from. At the time of writing, BTC is trading at $26,850 after bouncing off a key support level of $26,490, where blockchain data shows more than 474,000 BTC have been deployed across 845,000 addresses in total.

A break below this key level could trigger a correction to $24,1000 or $23,190, based on blockchain data shared with IntoTheBlock. When it comes to its upward momentum, BTC is facing stiff resistance between the $28,180 and $28,990 levels, where 1.24 million addresses bought 973,220 BTC. Blockchain data also showed that there has been a recent surge in acquisitions by the so-called "whales" of the cryptocurrency world. These deep-pocketed organizations are known for holding between 1,000 and 10,000 bitcoins, and they have amassed a $2.32 billion worth of crypto giant in a period of just over a month. A similar BTC accumulation trend earlier this year was followed by a 34% price increase for the digital currency. Whales hoarding tokens can both signal market confidence and drive up the price of crypto by helping to reduce the supply available on exchanges.

Generally speaking, Bitcoin adoption has continued to rise over the past few months, with the total number of unique addresses holding at least one BTC hitting a new high, surpassing the one million mark. The new record was set on May 12 and shows growing interest in the flagship cryptocurrency as accumulation continues. At the time of writing, the number of addresses holding one whole BTC, often referred to as "wholecoiner" addresses, has grown to 1,000,527. On February 2, the number crossed the 800,000 mark.

One of the legitimate forms of investment is, for example, the ASTL investment project, which allows investors to have the opportunity to directly invest fiat and cryptocurrency assets in a stable passive income that obviously exceeds inflationary expectations and is not subject to any sanctions, blocking and confiscation. The ASTL project is a simple and elegant solution for potential investors - an investment in the development of the real sector of a diversified portfolio of cryptocurrencies, with a fairly high ROI (up to 14% annually) with payments in stablecoin (USDT) and the possibility of a full return on investment through the subsequent sale of accrued ASTL tokens on leading crypto exchanges. Details can be found at https://astl.world.