Bitcoin is the slowest yet most protected network. Cryptocurrency is recognised by financial analysts as a store of value, but it isn't very suitable for frequent payments. 

To confirm payment, the transaction must be included in a block that's formed once every 10 minutes. As the network was improved, the number of included transactions grew by increasing a block, whose average size exceeded 2.5 MB this year.

Nevertheless, when demand for transfers is high, the network encounters a shortage of space since an average of a little over 4,000 transactions are sent for processing in those 10 minutes.

For the transaction to be sent in time during peak hours, users must offer miners higher fees. The fees exceeded $30 on 8 May, which came out of the blue both for regular users and big players like Binance.

This was when many remembered the second coin (by launch date) after Bitcoin. Litecoin was designed in 2011 specifically for quick and cheap transfers. Its blocks are formed four times faster, and its speed reaches 56 TPS versus Bitcoin's 7 TPS. They're technically very much alike, which is why Litecoin is often called Bitcoin's little brother.

Its relatively high speed and lower popularity helped Litecoin avoid the problems that the implementation of Ordinals has brought (see our piece for more details on Ordinals). Moreover, the fee dropped to less than $0.01 in May. 

As a result, the demand for transactions in Litecoin grew five-fold in May, going from an average of 100,000 to 500,000 transactions per day. The number of new active addresses also surpassed those of Bitcoin, while the fee stayed at its lowest levels.

Since 8 May, when Bitcoin faced an all-time high overload, Litecoin has demonstrated confident growth against it.

And there's more to come for Litecoin users and investors. The altcoin is the first among the major networks to hold a halving event, which is expected in early August of this year. Traditionally, a cut in rewards for miners boosts further growth.

StormGain Analytical Group 
(platform for trading, exchanging and storing cryptocurrency)