In case you didn't notice, Litecoin, one of the oldest cryptocurrencies, has turned eight. While there is no point in denying that the O.G. altcoin has always been in Bitcoin's shadow, its journey was still remarkable.
The public launch of the Litecoin network took place on Oct. 13, 2011, after the first block was mined on Oct. 5, 2011, the day the world was devastated by the death of Apple founder Steve Jobs. Before the advent of Ripple's XRP and Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin would steadily remain the second most-traded cryptocurrency after Bitcoin.
Charlie Lee, the mastermind behind Bitcoin-lite, points out that the network has been endlessly running for all these years without any downtime despite a plethora of doom-laden predictions.
Over the span of these eight years, LTC has recorded around $500 bln worth of transactions.
“A lot has happened in 8 years, we have seen two major bull market cycles that have propelled crypto to the forefront of public consciousness and new technologies such as Segwit, Lightning, and MimbleWimble emerge advancing the usability and prospects of the space,” the Litecoin Foundation claims.
It's also worth mentioning Litecoin's most controversial moment — Lee selling almost all of his LTC right on the verge of the market crash at the beginning of 2018 to avoid conflict of interest.
Back in August 2019, Lee once again faced some criticism after his leaked conversation suggested that Litecoin developers stopped working on the project. However, as reported by U.Today, Lee later dispelled these rumors.
With that being said, Litecoin is still doing just fine, quietly sitting at 6th spot with a market cap of $3.6 bln, CoinStats data shows.
Will Litecoin manage to survive another eight years? Share your take in the comment section!
