Bitcoin (BTC) and Litecoin (LTC): a comparison
Bitcoin and Litecoin set side by side: how the quotes moved, how the protocols are built and what tasks each one was made for.
Specifications of BTC and LTC
| Bitcoin (BTC) | Litecoin (LTC) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $74,836.00 | $51.44 |
| Ticker | BTC | LTC |
| Type | coin of its own network | coin of its own network |
| Launched | 2009 | 2011 |
| Built by | Satoshi Nakamoto | Charlie Lee |
| Consensus | Proof of Work (SHA-256) | Proof of Work (Scrypt) |
| Block | ~10 min | ~2.5 min |
| Supply cap | 21 M BTC | 84 M LTC |
| Privacy | transfers are public | transfers are public |
| In circulation | 20.11 M BTC | 77.81 M LTC |
| Market cap | $1.5 T | $4 B |
| Rank by cap | #1 | #25 |
Source: CoinGecko, Nov 10, 2026 12:57. How these numbers are counted
Price movement: BTC and LTC
The start of the period is taken as 100 for both prices: the chart shows the difference in movement, not the quotes themselves.
| Period | BTC | LTC |
|---|---|---|
| 7 days | −3.94% | −4.37% |
| 30 days | −8.91% | −19.8% |
| 90 days | +17.66% | +12.88% |
The link between their daily moves over the quarter is 0.75 (they travel together).
The tasks BTC and LTC were made for
- Storing value over the long runBitcoin
- Transfers and paymentsLitecoin
How Bitcoin and Litecoin are built
How Bitcoin works
Underneath it is Proof of Work on SHA-256. Miners compete for the right to close the next block, which happens roughly every 10 minutes, and the reward is made up of new coins plus transaction fees. Every 210,000 blocks, about once every four years, the reward is cut in half, so issuance gradually fades out. Balances are not held in accounts but as unspent outputs (UTXO).
What Bitcoin is for
Most people buy bitcoin for the long run and hold it, treating it as a way to preserve capital. At the same time it stays the reference point for the whole market: trading pairs, indices and derivatives are quoted against it. Less often, it is used for what it was built for — cross-border transfers — while small payments are moved to the Lightning Network.
How Litecoin works
The consensus is Proof of Work on the Scrypt algorithm, a block comes out roughly every 2.5 minutes, four times more often than in bitcoin. The supply cap is 84 million coins, and the block reward halves about once every four years. Since 2022 the optional MWEB extension for confidential transactions has been available.
What Litecoin is for
LTC is moved between exchanges when fees in the bitcoin network are high, and it is used to pay where fast and cheap transfers are needed.