Litecoin ($LTC) is scheduled to halve for the third time on August 2nd, 2023 at approximately 17:49 UTC. But what exactly is halving? Does it mean that my LTC balance be cut in half? We’ll explain in simple terms as to what exactly is halving.
Halving explained
A block halving event (known as a halving) halves the mining reward of one block - a batch of transactions. When Litecoin launched on October 7, 2011, the reward for mining one block was 50 litecoin. For every 840,000 blocks mined, the reward per block will halve until the reward per block eventually hits zero (approximately in 2142). For the third halving, the block reward will decrease from 12.5 LTC to 6.25 LTC. At the current rate, halving is expected to occur every four years.
Therefore, there will be a limited supply of Litecoin - exactly 84,000,000 of them, with 150 second intervals in between blocks.
Why halve in the first place?
Since its launch, Litecoin is a deflationary currency - a currency with a scarce supply, just like Bitcoin. You could say that Bitcoin is gold and Litecoin is silver. As availability of Litecoin decreases, the price of Litecoin will increase. Think of it as gold - we’re running out of gold to discover, so the price of gold will most likely increase in the long run.
How will this affect Litecoin’s price?
Past LTC halving events have resulted in astronomical gains in price. The first ever LTC halving resulted in a 12,000% gain in price, while the second halving resulted in a 1,500% gain in price. There is a possibility of a significant gain in price according to some experts, however others believe that there may be a short-term spike in price and then a decrease post-halving.
Because of the instability of the cryptocurrency market, what happens is questionable - but Litecoin still has a very big chance to rise in price. As always, make sure to only invest how much you can afford to lose if you do decide to take a shot at an investment into this halving!
Diverging opinions
Learn more about the halving!
