LTC
Litecoin · Proof-of-work money (Scrypt, merge-mining parent of DOGE)
Score qualifies for T2; held by Value engine 2 (needs 3), Security 1 (needs 2).
Key facts
- Circulating 77.7M, 93%
- Not yet issued 6.3M, 7%
- Max 84.0M
Market data: CoinGecko, Oct 24, 2026. Scores reviewed Oct 23, 2026.
Assessment
Litecoin's engine is the money route: ~166K transactions a day and a record 563,923 LTC (0.7% of supply) held in the MWEB privacy extension in Sep 2026. Supply follows an 84M hard cap with halvings, ~1.5% over the next 12 months, and the schedule, next halving at block 3,360,000 (~Jul 2027), has never changed. Apart from a 150 LTC premine, all 77.7M issued LTC came from open mining since the Oct 13, 2011 launch. Security is the weak point: an MWEB validation bug was exploited in Mar 2026 to peg out 85,034 unbacked LTC, contained only by an emergency miner rule and a coordinated 13-block reorg on Apr 25, 2026.
How value reaches holders
None by design: fees and the 6.25 LTC block subsidy go to miners. 84M hard cap, ~1.31M LTC/yr issuance (~1.7% of the 77.7M supply); the halving every 840,000 blocks has never changed. Fees are tiny: ~3,170 LTC (~$0.2M) in the year to Oct 18, 2026. In Mar 2026 an MWEB validation bug was exploited to peg out 85,034 unbacked LTC; an emergency miner rule froze the outputs and a 13-block reorg was coordinated on Apr 25, 2026
Score anatomy
Demand
21 / 45: the stronger of two routes, plus adoptionWhy would anyone hold it: does value reach the token, and is the network or product used today?
All fees go to miners by design
Nothing reaches holders by designHow this is scored
Under $0.5M/yr, or emissions-subsidized only
~166K transactions/day (Blockchair, Oct 23, 2026) and a record 563,923 LTC (0.7% of supply) held in MWEB (Sep 2026).
Measurable niche monetary use: payment rails, savings products, or collateral at third-party venues below the next levelhigh confidenceHow this is scored
Litecoin carries ~166K tx/day, steady YoY, with a record 564K LTC in MWEB; a long-standing top payment coin after BTC and stablecoins
Established: a meaningful, steady share of its categorymedium confidenceHow this is scored
Two routes, the stronger counts
Soundness
27 / 40Can a long-term holder trust the rules: supply, float, distribution and control?
84M hard cap with halvings: ~1.15M LTC (~1.5%) over the next 12 months, halving at block 3,360,000 (~Jul 2027); changes need a hard fork adopted by node operators.
Under 1%/yr net without a hard cap, a hard cap with halvings issuing 1-3%/yr, or zero issuance where binding on-chain token governance could vote to mint morehigh confidenceHow this is scored
All 77.7M issued LTC is liquid; beyond a 150 LTC premine, supply comes only from mining.
Fully vested, no scheduled unlockshigh confidenceHow this is scored
Source and binaries shipped days before a poll-chosen Oct 13, 2011 launch; the 150 LTC premine (~0.0002%) is a tiny insider allocation, which rules out level 5; open mining since
Under 2% to insiders, open software at launchhigh confidenceHow this is scored
An MWEB validation bug was exploited in Mar 2026 to peg out 85,034 unbacked LTC, contained by an emergency miner rule and a coordinated 13-block reorg on Apr 25, 2026
A halt, rollback or exploited consensus bug in the last 24 months, attack cost under $10M, or a foundation-selected validator set or small multisig can halt or upgrade with no meaningful exit windowhigh confidenceHow this is scored
Durability
9 / 15Is it big, proven and reachable by institutions?
$4.6B market cap (band 4), $291.3M/day median volume (band 4), no flags.
Major: $1-10B market cap and $50M/day+How this is scored
The exploit outputs were frozen by an emergency miner rule and a 13-block reorg was coordinated on Apr 25, 2026: both count as rollbacks within 5 years
3-5 years, or a rollback, coordinated chain-wide halt or restart, or a $50M+ exploit in the last 5 yearshigh confidenceHow this is scored
One US spot ETF (Canary LTCC, ~$13M); Grayscale LTCN (~$117M) is still an OTC trust
One US spot ETF, or US ETFs under $500Mhigh confidenceHow this is scored
What would move it up
To reach T2 Strong, 2 gates are still open:
- Value engine 2needs 3(open)
- Security 1needs 2(open)
- Score 57gate 55(met)
- Adoption 3gate 3(met)
- Supply 4gate 2(met)
- Distribution 4gate 1(met)
- Float and unlocks 5gate 1(met)
- Scale 4gate 3(met)
Tier outlook
Stable
- Security can rise only after the Apr 25, 2026 coordinated reorg ages past 24 months (Apr 2028) with no new exploit
- Supply rises to 5 after the ~Jul 2027 halving takes issuance under 1%/yr
- Usage: MWEB balances and daily transactions (~166K)
- Access: Grayscale LTCN conversion to a US spot ETF beside Canary LTCC (~$13M)
- Security: F2Pool's ~34% share of blocks
Compare with
How the ranking works and how LTC compares: see the full ranking. This entry as JSON:
GET https://tokens.10102.io/api/v1/tokenomics?symbol=LTC