Litecoin Price Nears Two-Year High As SegWit Hopes Rise

Litecoin prices continued a recent rally today, pushing the digital currency to its highest value in more than one year.

Far from a standard cryptocurrency pump, however, the market appears to be responding strongly to its technical roadmap. Namely, the increase comes as the network nears the key 75% support level needed to activate Segregated Witness, a scaling solution that will boost block capacity.

While signaling had declined slightly to 67% at press time, litecoin traded as high as $11.32 today, up nearly 40% in the space of 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Late yesterday, the digital currency even reached $11.42, its highest price since May 2014.

These recent price increases have built on the gains the cryptocurrency began experiencing roughly one week ago, when the digital asset surged nearly 70% on 30th March.

As a result of these continued upward price movements, litecoin's value surged more than 100% in a week. According to Coinmarketcap.com, 24-hour volume surpassed $250m today, a drastic increase from the $10m recorded during the 30th March rally.

SegWit support builds

The major development that has coincided with litecoin's continued rise is progress toward obtaining the support levels needed for activating SegWit.

First designed for use on the bitcoin blockchain, SegWit would nonetheless increase litecoin's block capacity by altering how transaction date is stored by the network.

Once breached, the level of support will need to remain at or above the 75% threshold level for 8,064 blocks (roughly two weeks) before it can officially be implemented.

The recent rally in litecoin prices compares to a long period when the digital currency's price experienced little volatility.

The price of litecoin rose to more than $50 in late 2013 but has traded below $20 since early 2014.

Image via CoinDesk Archieve