Global open interest for Litecoin (LTC) futures has increased by 22% since the start of the year to over $420 million.
Open position is the total number of futures contracts that are not closed or executed on a given date. It represents the amount of money or positions investors hold in the futures market.
This is the highest position level for LTC futures since early 2022, according to CoinGlass data.
One of the most important factors behind this increasing interest in LTC is the halving event that the coin will take place in the near future. The halving event, which is expected to happen on August 5, will halve the number of new coins created on the network, making Litecoin rarer and potentially more valuable.
Litecoin also performed well this month, gaining about 7% from $86 to $92, according to CoinGecko data. Also, according to BitInfoCharts data, the hash rate, which measures the computing power that secures and validates transactions on the blockchain, has increased by 45% in the past year to 730 TH/s.
Litecoin is a cryptocurrency created in 2011 by Charlie Lee, a former Google engineer. It is based on the Bitcoin protocol, but there are some differences in its specifications.
Litecoin has a maximum supply of 84 million coins compared to Bitcoin's 21 million. Litecoin also has a faster block creation time of 2.5 minutes compared to Bitcoin's 10 minutes.
*Not investment advice.