From Litecoin

Litecoin's 2024: In Review!

In 2024, Litecoin (LTC) transcended its reputation as merely “digital silver.” Shattering records for network transactions, hashrate, address activity, opt-in privacy adoption (MWEB aka ‘VPM’), and seen mainstream integration galore. Institutions are betting big on LTC, filing for ETFs, launching Futures and other products, and adding to their Litecoin stacks. And yes, we minted a few memes along the way, propelling Litecoin back into the spot-lite. Without further ado, let’s chew through 2024’s juicy highlights, like a VC devouring Solana’s cap table.

Network Stats: Smashed!

Every year, Litecoin gets stronger. A claim perhaps no other altcoin can make. The last 12 months proved no exception, with network milestones unlocked, then smashed again. 

Transactions. 2024 started off strong! By November 19, 2024, more than 84 million Litecoin transactions had been processed. And, with a busy run to the end of 2024, another record was smashed - with 92,764,978 transactions for the year! A 38.55% increase on the 66.95m transactions (a previous all-time-high) processed in 2023! Unbelievably, this pales in comparison to a milestone Litecoin’s mere days away from hitting: its 300 millionth transaction! If network trends continue, the milestone will occur on January 3, 2025 - the date of Bitcoin’s 16th Genesis Block anniversary. Fingers crossed for a double celebration. We’ll be marking the 300 Million milestone with an in-depth piece on Litecoin transactions from October 2011 through to the block containing tx 300,000,000. 

~1.22 million transactions processed on January, 3 2024  (Source: IntoTheBlock)

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Fees & Speed. For the entire year Litecoin’s average fee remained under US$0.01 per transaction! In fact, the highest 24-hour average fee was US$0.0091 on April 1, 2024. As for speed, Litecoin maintained 2.5-minute block times - providing users near instantaneous settlement. Boring? Predictable? We like to call it consistency, stability and efficiency. Attributes of Litecoin that uphold its reputation and suitability as the strongest alternative currency, especially for those experiencing monetary restrictions or inflation.‍

Litecoin’s Average Transaction Fees, 2024 (Source: IntoTheBlock)‍

New & Active Addresses. From the get-go 2024 showed unprecedented on-chain activity. On January 3, 2024, Litecoin had 1.37 million active addresses in a single day; more than Bitcoin and Ethereum combined. Research from IntoTheBlock showed Litecoin users stayed busy throughout 2024, with 401,000 average daily active addresses; a 10% increase on 2023’s average of 366,000 daily active addresses.

Even at peak ‘congestion’ Litecoin transactions remained ~2.5min in 2024 (Source: IntoTheBlock)

Reliability. Litecoin users have opted-in to money without a third-party. Trust, high-performance and reliability are vital if one is to use Litecoin - a trusttless, decentralized network. Data from this December again confirmed Litecoin as more active than Dogecoin, Avalanche and Cardano. And with zero downtime since launching in 2011! And with zero downtime since launching in 2011! Litecoin’s 13 flawless years remain a market anomaly - one worth writing about. With more new users and investors entering this trustless space, emphasizing Litecoin’s reliability and battle-tested track record should be making headlines. Instead, blockchains and protocols with sketchy ledgers - Solana, Avalanche, SUI, TON, et al - dominate media focus. Hopefully 2025 will see greater focus on stalwarts of decentralized finance, not degenerates of DeFi.

‍“Litecoin’s relentless reliability continues to impress, especially when you see 13 straight years of zero downtime.”-SimTrade Litecoin Analysis

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Network Security. On December, 28, 2024, Litecoin’s hashrate surged to just under 2 PH/s (1.919 PH/s) - a new all-time high (ATH). Hashrate is another healthy indication of Litecoin’s network security, and also the seriousness of miner intent. It’s because of these miners, pools and node-runners that Litecoin is one of the most reliable, secure and efficient. So if you’ve ever asked yourself (or been asked by others) the best way one can contribute to Litecoin consider reading up about mining, black lung and running a node. It’s Litecoin unwavering community support that’s responsible for 13 consecutive years of 100% uptime, and counting! Thank you, anonymous node-maintainers and block verifiers! 

Litecoin’s hashrate has been on a consistent upward trend for all of 2024 (Source: Litecoin Space)

Payments: Dominated

‍Litecoin continues to do what it does best: function as a real currency. While your six-toed cousin’s uncle-Dad insists “nobody uses crypto,” Litecoin’s real-world adoption continued in 2024. For 12+ consecutive months, Litecoin has been the most used crypto for payments on platforms like BitPay. And it’s #1 by some margin. For example in August Litecoin made up 38.04% of all transactions; more than Bitcoin (25.20%) and Ethereum (9.27%) combined.  ‍

Litecoin has been the most used crypto  for 12+ months! (Source: BitPay)

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Crypto Champions! This year’s crypto payment competition was of Olympic proportions! While Australia’s ‘Raygun’ cast shame over the sport of breaking, Litecoin set about breaking records and occupying top spots on BitPay’s ‘Champions’ podium. A solid 41.76% market share performance saw Litecoin awarded Gold for “Most Overall Transactions”. With ‘digital silver’ also winning Silver in the hotly contested “Most Frequently Bought” & “Most Gift Cards Purchased” events.‍

“Litecoin dominated the crypto payment scene. From groceries to online shopping, LTC became the default choice for countless users.”-Coinpaper Early 2024 Report

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PayPal & MoonPay. Earlier in the year saw another win when MoonPay announced to its 20 million users that they could start buying Litecoin in-app using their PayPal account. To paraphrase a MoonPay spokesperson at the time: ‘PayPal’s integration allows users to circumvent bank restrictions hindering crypto purchases’. And with its new Business features, PayPal is also allowing merchants to do the same. 2024 was a year which saw more focus on improved customer experience, making Litecoin on-ramps easier and more intuitive than ever. But if, for whatever reason, PayPal and MoonPay aren’t your bag, here’s another 94 registered payment processors to take their place.

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One of the limited edition Litecoin x Arculus cards!

And Litecoin’s not just for digital payments - more than 3300 physical stores accept LTC as payment for a collective 173,000 products! Check this map for your nearest Litecoin friendly IRL store. It won’t come as a shock that one of the year’s most anticipated products was Arculus’ limited edition Litecoin card, which launched in July at the 2024 Summit in Nashville. And come on! Take a look at that card - it’s a beautiful beach! A hardware wallet security with NFC payment capabilities, the Arculus x Litecoin card opens up another frontier for mainstream adoption and use of LTC. It’s limited edition so now’s the time to get yourself a slightly-tardy Christmas present.

‍We Took Our First L

Litecoin’s not known for trend-chasing. That was, until, our now infamous intern hijacked @litecoin on Twitter / X. One chaotic tweet later and suddenly Litecoin’s hobnobbing with cartoon dogs and befriending a man named greg. ‘We took the L’, introduced Litecoin to new audience, made a few memes and a whole lot of mates. To celebrate and say thank you, Litecoin hosted a Twitter party… but that came to an abrupt end less than 75 minutes in. All in all, it was a good laugh - big love those who tuned in and took part!

Here’s a stock image of strangers pretending to be in love wearing Take The L shirts. Buy one, support the Foundation!

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While the Litecoin team, intern and Foundation members are staunchly against the pump-and-dump scams which rode the Lester wave (not dropping tickers, sorry), we did capitalize just a little on our 15 Tweets of Fame. Making, stocking and selling new Litecoin merchandise. 100% intern made, with all profits going to support the Litecoin Foundation.

‍ETFs ‘n’ Futures Look Bright

Spot ETF Filed.  October 15, 2024 was a big day. Canary Capital submitted the first Litecoin Spot ETF application (S-1) to the SEC, aiming to bring LTC into the mainstream investment arena. Learn more from this short article which includes excerpts from Canary Capital.‍

“I’m excited to see the Litecoin ETF filing by Canary Capital. We are definitely seeing a lot of institutional demand for Litecoin. This is clear from the daily growth of the Grayscale Litecoin Trust with a price that is over twice the NAV. Given that Litecoin is a commodity that is very similar to Bitcoin, I hope to see the Litecoin ETF approved very soon.”-Charlie Lee, Litecoin Creator (October 22, 2024 - Release)

Coinbase Futures. On March 7, 2024, Coinbase filed an application with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (‘CTFC’) to list a new investment product: ‘Litecoin Futures’ contracts! Two weeks later and the application’s status ticked over to ‘Certified’. Coinbase’s Litecoin Futures went live shortly thereafter and were an instant hit. Trading volumes have since soared by 10,950% fueling Coinbase’s plans to introduce perpetual futures in Europe any time now! If you’re interested in reading more, we did a deep dive on Coinbase’s application, insights and comparisons drawn, and what it (still) means for Litecoin.

Fidelity. Shortly after Coinbase’s bet paid off, Fidelity came out as polygamous. Adding Litecoin support and custody in July, 2024; and bundling it with Bitcoin and Ethereum as part of the trading platforms’ institutional offering. Want to learn more? We got you covered.‍

Grayscale has made no secret of their affection toward Litecoin, their third largest altcoin holding. (Source: coinglass)

Grayscale. It won’t come as a galloping shock that Grayscale are Litecoin fans. In the 30 days prior to December 19, 2024, they added 41,100 LTC to their holdings. Grayscale’s appetite for Litecoin recently has been insatiable - buying up to 2,230 LTC a day. Not to mention that The Grayscale Litecoin Trust’s (LTCN) holdings grew by 15% in 2024, equating to approximately US$220M. With only ~75.3m LTC in circulation, Grayscale’s 2.03m LTC likely makes it the currency’s largest holder. And with ETFs forming a large part of their investment strategy, it’s surely just a matter of time before they put those 2 million Litecoin up for adoption. Annnnd, there’s a twist. Grayscale published a research piece on December 31, 2024 that had us scratching our heads. Despite Grayscale’s very public and aggressive accumulation of Litecoin, it was noticeably absent from their “Top 20 list of assets that, in our view, have high potential* for Q1 based on upcoming catalysts, trending market themes, and token-specific fundamentals.” Hmmm, their third largest altcoin holding worth in excess of US$200m didn’t make the cut? Makes sense. After all, ‘Bittensor’, ‘Jupiter’ and ‘Grass’ look like solid bets.‍‍

Galaxy, ARK & Bloomberg? Midway through 2024 the Litecoin ETF rumor mill was in full swing and on-chain activity was turned way up. Naturally, we decided to investigate. You can read our thesis on the massive Litecoin inflows and on-chain activity here. To give you a little taste, on May 24 alone, US$5.04b (59.18m LTC at the time) was traded in 24 hours. While we never found out who was responsible, the spike coincided with heavyweights ARK Invest and Galaxy Digital announcing increases in LTC holdings. Without doubt  institutional demand for Litecoin has been strongest in 2024, and shows no signs of slowing into 2025. But who will be the first to get a Litecoin Spot ETF approved? Canary Capital or another player? Bloomberg analysts, Eric Balchunas and James Seyffart, made their predications clear in a conveniently-timed post turned article. Concluding that out of all altcoins with Spot ETF applications in progress, Litecoin’s is most likely to be approved first! Then again, Bloomberg’s guess is as good as your - and ours!

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Privacy, Tech & Utility

Litecoin and privacy came a long way in 2024. Efforts honed in on MimbleWimble Extension Blocks (MWEB) adoption, with improvements to user-experience and accessibility of the technology. A new project, Virtual Private Money (VPM), was launched at the 2024 Summit in Nashville, aiming to make MWEB’s opt-in privacy technology palatable to new audiences. With financial privacy, monetary restrictions and surveillance of citizens on the rise globally, VPM will spend 2025 building on ideas in the ‘Virtual Private Money Whitepaper’, with a focus on the ASEAN region. Countries and economies where Litecoin MWEB’s technology has the potential to transform lives. The hope being that VPM’s ‘friendly’ shopfront will allow millions to benefit from Litecoin’s opt-in privacy feature. Regaining control over their money and restoring basic human rights of privacy and financial freedom.   ‍

Litecoin MWEB / VPM has seen huge increase in transactions & balance in 2024 (Source: MWEB Explorer)

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Thanks to the dedication of MWEB’s developer community, the road for mobile integration was paved in March. Side Note: Litecoin Core v0.21.4 has been released and we encourage upgrading immediately. After years of hard work, development and testing, MWEB was finally ready to go mobile. And it didn’t take long! With their latest software update, Cake Wallet became the first mobile wallet / app to add support for Litecoin’s opt-in privacy feature! Early days, but Cake Wallet’s adoption, lite client releases, and the concerted effort to communicate MWEB / VPM’s benefit to larger audiences has paid off already. With daily MWEB transactions growing daily, hitting an all time high of 1615 on September 24, 2024.Wrapped Litecoin (wLTC). Another big Litecoin release that came late in 2024 was wLTC. Recognizing DeFi’s explosive growth and potential, Litecoin Wrapped was launched, acting as a bridge to Ethereum’s ecosystem. Litecoin’s users can now take part in yield farming, borrowing and lending without friction. Read all about it, right here, and watch this space.

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‍Events, Donations & Community

Few moments in 2024 trump (‘scuse the… pun?) Charlie Lee announcement, closing out the incredible Litecoin Summit 2024. Confirming that he’s far from left the Litecoin project, Lee announced that he’d match donations to the Litecoin Foundation up to $250,000 annually, for five years. A commitment of up to $1.25 million! This generous commitment will ensure development, maintenance and adoption of Litecoin via the Foundation's efforts for years to come! Thanks, Charlie!

Speaking of: take a look at projects you could support, and other ways to donate, on the brand-spanking new website: litecoin.com. PS: now that the Litecoin Foundation has been granted 501(c)(3) status, not only will your donations be matched dollar-for-dollar by Charlie, but those in the US may be eligible to benefit from tax deductible contributions. Learn more about making Donations to Litecoin Foundation. PPS: please consider donating to Code.org, who are developing coders of the future. You may get a surprise! 

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Litecoin Summit 2024 | Litecoin Foundation Team Panel (Picture Credit: Loshan, who should stick to using auto-focus)

Litecoin Summit 2024. Nashville sure put on a show for this year’s Summit. Two days of keynotes captivated a record crowd of new-comers and Litecoin OGs. With presentations from cypherpunks like Jameson Lopp and Internet Hall of Famer, Phil Zimmerman, to an animated interview about ETFs with Coinbase’s John D’Agostino. And, of course, Charlie Lee’s unprecedented - and surprise - commitment to continue supporting the currency he created 13 years ago.Check out all 34 amazing Litecoin Summit presentations on our YouTube, and keep an eye out for the Litecoin Summit 2025 big announcement in coming weeks!

2024 Reshaped Litecoin

A year of record-breaking milestones, meme-fueled friendships, life-enhancing privacy updates, and unprecedented institutional interest. 2024 has been nothing short of transformational for Litecoin, its users, community and the Litecoin Foundation.

In spite of all these achievements, the greatest applause and thanks is reserved for Litecoin’s community. Thank you! Yes, you! The developers, miners, node-runners, marketers, shop owners, hodlers, users, readers, retweeters and neighbor-convincers! You’re the difference!

Bring on 2025! The best is yet to come.