As the 2017 bull run began to lose steam and Litecoin’s value started to tumble, the altcoin’s mining difficulty curiously began to spike — more than tripling while LTC crashed by over 70 percent. Since May 2018, things have reversed in a big way.

After reaching its 2018 high, Litecoin (LTC) mining difficulty began to fall drastically — decreasing by half over the following six months while the altcoin crashed to below $25 for the first time in over a year. However, since the start of 2019, both Litecoin’s mining difficulty and its value have been on a significant uptick.

Currently, Litecoin is priced at around $127.50 and has quadrupled in value since the start of the year. Meanwhile, LTC mining difficulty has repeatedly broken its all-time high.

Much of the growth appears to be related to Litecoin’s upcoming block reward halving, which will soon see miners rewarded just 12.5 LTC for each successfully mined block. Currently estimated to occur on August 06, 2019, speculators are likely stockpiling LTC in anticipation of a healthy profit.

The Litecoin hashrate has also seen tremendous growth this year, with the overall network hashrate now sitting at an all-time high of 407.8T. Similarly, the Litecoin difficulty is also at an all-time high of 13.57M — up more than 150 percent since the beginning of the year.

While there are likely several reasons underlying the recent growth in both difficulty and hash rate, one of the biggest contributing factors appears to be the release of new mining hardware — such as Goldshell’s X6 miner, which is capable of churning out 1730Mh/s at 2,000W.

Another contributing factor reason behind the recent growth in Litecoin popularity could be the down to the upcoming charity lunch with Tron CEO Justin Sun and Business mogul Warren Buffett.

As a part of the winning $4.6 million winning bid, Sun is able to bring with him seven guests to the event. Sun has since extended the invitation to Litecoin founder Charlie Lee, who will then have the opportunity to evangelize Litecoin during the televised lunch. As of yet, however, Lee doesn’t appear to have confirmed his attendance — though it is unlikely he would refuse such an opportunity.

Overall, this is seen as a positive development not only for Litecoin but for other altcoins as well — as increased awareness is usually correlated with increased demand and usage. With that said, it remains to be seen whether Litecoin’s gains will persist after the halving in two months or whether a correction is on the card.

What do you think is behind the recent surge in Litecoin interest? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!