Litecoin is rallying days after plummeting to a Q2 2024 low of around $70 in June. Behind this revival is the proliferation of hierarchical inscriptions.
Litecoin has over 25 million ordinal numbers engraved on it.
According to Litecoin, as of June 27, over 25 million ordinals have been registered on the proof-of-work network. Remarkably, a record-breaking 1.5 million was added in just two weeks, and a massive development took place. Proof of work network.
Unlike Bitcoin and Ethereum, which have relatively high fees, transactions with Litecoin are cheap. The lower fees may be due to less trading activity and better scalability, unlike the world’s most valuable coin.
According to BitInfoCharts, the average transaction fee on the Litecoin network as of June 28 was $0.0037. Interestingly, this number has remained stable in recent months, even though Ordinals was launched in early 2023.
Litecoin average transaction fee |Source: BitInfoCharts
Therefore, the increasing number of ordinal numbers in one of the earliest networks indicates the resilience of that network. This is because the fees are still low and you can easily manage more items and transactions.
The Ordinal boom not only demonstrates the network’s capabilities, but also reflects the growing interest and potential for broader adoption. In early June, active addresses increased by 75% and transactions increased by 426,000. This surge brought activity to its highest level in six months, surpassing activity on Ethereum, the most active platform.
Litecoin price trending upward on daily chart | Source: Binance’s LTCUSDT, TradingView
Litecoin is a fork of Bitcoin, so Inscription works the same way. They leverage their capabilities to store arbitrary data such as text and images immutably and transparently. All inscriptions are stored on the chain so other users can verify their authenticity and even their origin.
Recovering from Bitcoin’s success, miners profit
The success of Ordinal Inscription on the Bitcoin network has paved the way for launching similar tools on Litecoin and Dogecoin. Anthony Guerrera took the SegWit and Taproot soft fork originally launched in Bitcoin and deployed it to Litecoin in early 2023.
Still, Bitcoin ordinal numbers in particular have been criticized for unnecessarily spamming the network and leading to higher transaction fees. When Bitcoin halved on April 20th, the Rune protocol was introduced, which caused fees to rise. But soaring transaction fees have become a lifeline for miners, who are suffering from a sharp drop in revenue after the halving.
Featured image from Canva, chart from TradingView
