Litecoin (LTC), a cryptocurrency often seen as the silver to Bitcoin’s gold, celebrated its eighth birthday this month, after around $500 billion were transacted through its network.

As stated in a post published by the Litecoin Foundation, Litecoin’s Genesis, the first blocked mined on the cryptocurrency’s network, was mined back in October of 2011 with the following message:

@NY Times 05/Oct/2011 Steve Jobs, Apple’s Visionary, Dies at 56

Two blocks were subsequently mined to validate the genesis block and ensure the network was running properly. After it was confirmed Litecoin’s creator Charlie Lee used the popular Bitcointalk forum to ask users when should LTC be launched to ensure the community had a say.

The decided time was Thursday, October 13, at 03:00 GMT. User interest was initially low but as cryptocurrency adoption kept growing and as Bitcoin itself kept on making headlines – partly because of its use in darknet markets like the Silk Road – Litecoin adoption grew.

The cryptocurrency, according to CryptoCompare data, now as a market cap of $3.59 billion and one of the largest trading volumes in the cryptocurrency space. Per Charlie Lee, a total of $500 billion were transacted through the Litecoin network.

Litecoin’s Path so Far

Not everything has been great for Litecoin, however. The cryptocurrency has been heavily criticized by some who see it as a copy of Bitcoin that only distracts users from the flagship cryptocurrency.

Others have called LTC a testnet for Bitcoin. It acted as such when it came to implementing Segregated Witness (SegWit), as the Litecoin network adopted it before Bitcoin, and its usage on it is still higher. As covered, last month SegWit usage on LTC surpassed 75%. On the Bitcoin network, SegWit usage recently hit a new all-time high near the 60% mark.

Litecoin, as one of the leading altcoins, has also seen wild price fluctuations throughout its history. In the last few years these fluctuations have been somewhat severe, as LTC hit a new all-time high in December of 2017 at around $400, after starting the year at $4.

The cryptocurrency’s price then crashed to a $22 low in December of 2018, and has since been recovering. At press time, LTC is trading at $57.1.

Litecoin's performance over the past 12 months

Recent reports suggest the Litecoin Foundation is dealing with depleted reserves, although Lee himself has said it has enough to last between one and two years.

Featured  image via Pixabay.