Litecoin: Does the ETH Merge have anything to do with the surge in LTC’s hashrate 

Litecoin [LTC] and different high cryptocurrencies have been overshadowed by the Ethereum [ETH] Merge for the previous few weeks. Curiously, LTC could have truly benefited from the Merge from a hashrate perspective.

An inspection of Litecoin’s hash charge reveals a pointy uptick within the first 10 days of September. Its hash charge grew from as little as 390.93 TH/S on 31 August and peaked at 527 TH/S on 9 September.

Supply: Coinwarz

The timing of Litecoin’s hash charge spike aligns with the miner exodus from Ethereum. A few of the miners could have flowed into LTC miner swimming pools throughout this time, thus the sudden hash charge enhance.

Miner profitability vs value motion

Though the rise in hashrate represented an influx of miners, it wasn’t linked to the Merge. Nonetheless, the hashrate could have been influenced by LTC’s value motion. Upon contemplating Litecoin’s hashrate particularly within the final six months, it may be seen that its fluctuations had been in tandem with LTC’s value motion.

Supply: Coinwarz

LTC’s hash charge tanked sharply in June from its 2022 peak above 512 TH/S to as little as 353.75 TH/S by 1 July. This was across the similar time that the crypto market witnessed a crash. A drop in miner profitability may need been the driving pressure behind the crash.

The April-June market crash could have additionally pushed costs so low that many miners had been out of revenue. Thus, it made sense for miners to halt operations if their prices outweighed their mining income.

Moreover, Litecoin’s hashrate regularly recovered within the final three months as crypto costs additionally loved some restoration.

Hash charge sensitivity

Litecoin’s hashrate additionally registered a pointy drop within the final 5 days. This aligned with LTC’s value drop since this era however a ten% drop is hardly sufficient to warrant a significant hashrate change. The one approach such an consequence is sensible is that if an elevated miner depend resulted in additional sensitivity to cost modifications. Shrinking transaction volumes would additionally end in decrease miner profitability.

Supply: Santiment

Along with the information talked about above, LTC’s transaction quantity dropped ominously within the final 5 days. The identical time that the value registered a pullback.

An reverse consequence the place buying and selling quantity was excessive would help extra miner profitability even with a slight improve within the variety of miners. Greater LTC costs would thus enhance miner profitability.