Litecoin, the sixth-largest cryptocurrency asset by market capitalization, has recently set a new high in mining hashrate – and a new record number of Lightning nodes. The eight-year-old cryptocurrency continues to defy predictions of its demise, with new adaptations like Mimblewimble and the Lightning Network demonstrating its viability against other altcoins.

According to data provided by BitInfoCharts, the network peaked at 359.43TH/s on April 8th, eclipsing the previous high reached 11 months ago at 342.88TH/s. Historically, Litecoin’s hashrate has tailed its price action with varying speed. It generally increases slowly through bullish movements as miners purchase and install new equipment to keep up, and falls dramatically when prices drop, causing miners to pull their plugs.

However, the crypto space’s recent spark has pushed Litecoin’s price up again, and its hash rate is now higher than ever. This is likely due to the influx of previously installed mining gear being reactivated and put back to work as the market greens.

Lightning Funding Grows Tenfold In Months

Furthermore, there’s been a marked increase in the number of Lightning nodes, the transaction validators which run the second-layer payments network. When Crypto Briefing last covered the subject in January, Litecoin’s node count has just broken 100.  Since then, the Lightning Network has seen that number nearly double, now sitting at 184, growing an average of 21% each month.

In the same time period, the value of the network grew enormously. The cumulative value of all Litecoin payment channels grew from 26.73 LTC at the beginning of the year to nearly 294 LTC today. That’s nearly an eleven-fold increase since January, and a 71% increase over the past thirty days.

That’s good news for the Litecoin community, which has sometimes struggled to find relevance in a market dominated by newer, faster competitors. The double whammy of a huge increase in nodes and network value represents a huge positive for LTC.

Whether or not these developments can bring LTC to the front of the pack, the latest sprints show that Litecoin will remain a contender for quite some time.

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