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Litecoin Mining Difficulty Is Hitting New Highs, Foundation Says
The network’s mining difficulty peaked on Friday, indicating increased competition for miner rewards.
Updated Nov 8, 2022, 2:20 p.m. Published Nov 5, 2022, 6:18 a.m.
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Litecoin mining difficulty is at a new high, peaking at just under 18 million hashes, according to a post by the Litecoin Foundation on cryptocurrency market data site coinmarketcap.com.
Mining difficulty measures the average number of hashes required to “solve” a block. Litecoin miners compete by generating random hashes to find one lower than the target set by the network’s mining algorithm. Whoever wins this computationally intensive lottery gets to add a new block to the Litecoin blockchain and earns a reward.
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The increase in Litecoin’s mining difficulty likely means the competition for miner rewards is heating up.
The cryptocurrency, sometimes referred to as “digital silver,” also has a “halvening” event on the horizon. When Litecoin was launched in 2011, miners received 50 litecoins (LTC) for successfully mining a block. That reward (called a “subsidy”) is halved every 840,000 blocks (roughly every four years). The third halving takes place in 2023 and reduces the current 12.5 LTC subsidy to 6.25 LTC.
The price of LTC is holding steady, trading at $68.04 at the time of publication. However, on Wednesday, LTC’s price spiked 13% in a single day, probably due to payments giant MoneyGram’s announcement that its U.S. customers will soon be able to buy, sell and hold LTC, bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) in the MoneyGram mobile app.
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KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
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Ethereum Foundation makes post quantum security a top priority as new team forms
EF researcher Justin Drake says a new post-quantum team will drive wallet safety upgrades, research prizes and test networks as quantum timelines shorten.
What to know:
- The Ethereum Foundation has elevated post-quantum security to a top strategic priority, forming a dedicated Post Quantum team led by Thomas Coratger with support from leanVM cryptographer Emile.
- Researcher Justin Drake said Ethereum is shifting from background research to active engineering, including biweekly developer sessions on post-quantum transactions and multi-client post-quantum consensus test networks.
- The foundation is backing new cryptography with funding and outreach, launching two $1 million prizes, planning post-quantum community events and education, and stressing that blockchains must prepare early for quantum threats despite their long-term nature.
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