Litecoin may resemble Bitcoin, but it has some key differences. Litecoin has four times the total supply of Bitcoin and generates blocks four times as fast. Its block reward started at 50 LTC and is halved every 840,000 blocks.





In August of this year, Litecoin’s second block reward halving will take place, with the reward for each block reduced from 25 LTC to 12.5 LTC.





After reeling from last year’s bear market, Litecoin’s price has jumped 290% since January 1, according to April 4 Huobi data. Litecoin’s upcoming halving offers one possible explanation for this surge. The logic is simple: A reduction in block rewards could lead to greater scarcity in Litecoin’s supply, thus pushing up its price.





So does halving really lead to an increase in price? Lets’s look at the data.





Using data from Messari, the chart below shows Litecoin’s supply and price curve in 2015, when the first reward halving happened:











We found that before the block reward halving, the price surged, then dropped dramatically. Even so, the price after the halving was still higher than it was before, suggesting that halving did have a positive influence on Litecoin’s price. It’s worth noting, however, that halving can lead to security issues, as miners are less incentivized to keep the network safe.





Now, let’s take a bigger-picture look at Litecoin data. The chart below depicts Litecoin’s whole history (using a logarithmic scale).

















Already, the price trend in 2019 looks similar to that of 2015. It’s hard to say if history will repeat itself, but there is reason to believe that anticipation of Litecoin’s upcoming block halving is having a positive impact on its price.













