Litecoin is getting a lot of attention at the moment as its big brother Bitcoin gets bogged down by memecoins and Ordinals.
Litecoin has become an unexpected beneficiary of the problems facing the Bitcoin network at the moment. As a result, users are flocking to the silver to Bitcoin’s gold as it is faster and cheaper to transact with.
Litecoin transactions have surged to an all-time high of 576,000 on May 9, according to BitInfoCharts data. Moreover, the move coincided with the massive spike in Bitcoin network activity this month.
Since the beginning of May, Litecoin daily transactions have surged 470% to an all-time high.
Furthermore, Bitcoin transactions have also skyrocketed to more than 580,000 per day this week. This is a result of the BRC-20 Ordinals and the memecoin craze.
Litecoin Fees a Fraction
However, Litecoin transaction fees remain a fraction of those for Bitcoin. Average daily transaction fees on the Litecoin network were just $0.003 on May 9, according to BitInfoCharts data.
Comparatively, average Bitcoin transaction fees were still over $20 yesterday. They were even higher than average Ethereum fees, which had risen to around $18.
On May 9, the Litecoin Foundation reported that there had been an increase in new address creation.
“New addresses being created on Litecoin are now exceeding new Bitcoin addresses.”
The C3 Protocol commented that it was an impressive growth rate. “LTC has a promising future and many forget it was meant to be a strong liquid alternative to Bitcoin,” it added.
According to Glassnode, the number of active addresses on the Litecoin network spiked to 813,000 on May 9. It marks an increase of 278% since the beginning of the month.
Bitcoin usage has become untenable recently painful fees and more than 400,000 pending transactions in the mempool.
The situation has become so dire that a prominent core developer has waged war on BRC-20 memecoins and Ordinals, which he views as network spam.
LTC Price Reaction
Litecoin prices have also benefitted from the uptick in network activity. LTC had gained 3% to top $80 before retreating to its current price of $79.25.
LTC was bucking the market trend as Bitcoin and its brethren remained flat on the day. However, the asset remains down 80% from its May 2021 all-time high of $410.
There is hope that LTC prices will tick up next month as its August halving approaches.
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