The Litecoin price (LTC/USD) has failed to defend the $100 mark in the wake of the long awaited halving of LTC mining rewards.
The digital coin experienced a sharp price spike after the Litecoin network reached block height of $1,680,000 on Monday morning, which triggered the so called halving of mining rewards. The long-anticipated event reduced the amount of LTC tokens awarded for finding a block on the Litecoin blockchain to 12.5, from 25, previously. The market reaction lifted the coin’s price to as high as $105.59, which was its highest level since July 13. However, during the afternoon portion of the session the coin experienced a sharp pull-back, which erased most of its earlier gains. Eventually, LTC finished the session at $96.83, still well above its opening level of $93.09.
The coin saw further losses today’s trading, falling to as low as $94.40 in the afternoon. At the time of writing, the Litecoin price was hovering around the $95 mark, according to data from digital currency tracker Coinmarketcap. As a result of today’s lacklustre performance, Litecoin has been overtaken by Bitcoin Cash (BCH) as the fourth-largest digital currency on the market.
Meanwhile, mining activity on the Litecoin network has remained stable after the halving, according to LTC creator Charlie Lee, who recently warned that reward reductions could be discouraging to some miners.
“504 blocks have been mined since the halving. This is 1/4 of the way to the next diff change. 21.65 hrs has elapsed since the halving. Normally on average it takes 21 hrs for 504 blocks. This means 97% of pre-halving hashrate still mining LTC,” Lee tweeted earlier today.
In today’s trading, the Litecoin price stood at $94.91, as of 16:44 BST. The digital currency has lost 4.5% of its value in the past 24 hours. The coin’s total market capitalisation currently stands at nearly $6 billion.
Featured image: Wit Olszewski / Shutterstock.com
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