Sixty million Litecoin tokens have been mined by the Litecoin community, according to a press release from the number eight cryptocurrency based on market capitalization.
According to the release, the total number of LTC tokens to be minted is set to 84 million. The 60 million LTC minted means that over 70 percent of the total LTC tokens amount are in circulation. There are still 24 million LTC tokens to be mined.
Litecoin also incorporated a mechanism for adjusting the reward miners get for mining a block. The process is known as halving, and the next adjustment will occur around the 8th of August 2019. After the adjustment, each mined block will receive 12,5 LTC instead of 25 LTC as of now.
After the halving, the next adjustment will occur around 2022. The team at Litecoin.com also noted that mathematical calculations suggest that the last token will be mined in 2142, with a 0.00000042 LTC reward for the miner.
However, Litecoin’s price future is not certain. Litecoin’s creator, Charlie Lee predicted that the currency will drop to $20 amid the crypto frenzy from December 2017. He warned potential buyers that the token could suffer from a “multi-year bear market” and buying LTC at the December 2017 price of $300 is risky. A year later, the founder of Litecoin proved himself right. The token plummeted to $20, while Bitcoin hit a low of $3,200.
Litecoin managed to get back on track, and it’s now traded for around $32.18, and Bitcoin took another hit, not being able to settle above $4,000 and plunging to $3,664,42 as of press time.