Litecoin’s hashrate hits all-time high

Litecoin (LTC), the 5th largest digital asset with the current market capitalization of $6.3 billion, has lost over 3% of its value in recent 24 hours to trade at $103.00 by the time of writing. LTC has an average daily trading volume of $4.2 billion.  Litecoin is most actively traded against BTC and USDT.

Looking technically, LTC/USD failed to break above $112 barrier, strengthened by SMA200 (Simple Moving Average) on the 1-hour timeframe. This failure triggered a sharp sell-off during early Asian hours that took the price to the intraday low of $97.57. 

While the coin managed to recover above psychological $100.00, the further upside looks limited at this stage as long as the cryptocurrency market is dominated by bearish sentiments. The initial resistance comes at $105.00 (the upper edge of the old range) and $107.30 (SMA50, 1-hour). On the downside, 

Meanwhile, Litecoin's hashrate has been growing recently, meaning that miners need to dedicate more computing power to keep the network working.  According to Litecoin Foundation Director Franklyn Richards, only Litecoin has reached a historically high hashrate amid the global recovery on the market. 

"What is perhaps more impressive is that despite the run-up, only Litecoin appears to be making new hashrate highs. Bitcoin is still trying to break higher but has taken a dive back down with the recent retracement in price despite coming within touching distance," he wrote.

Richards believes it has to do with the Antminer L5 becoming available for Litecoin mining. While thee rumors have yet to be confirmed, the community members noted that L5 was available for rent at Bitdeer, a cloud mining partner with Bitmain and Antminer. 

LTC/USD, 1-hour chart