Litecoin vs Bitcoin, what is the difference?
Litecoin vs Bitcoin compares a 2011 offshoot with 2.5-minute blocks and an 84 million cap to the original coin with 10-minute blocks and a 21 million cap.
Litecoin vs Bitcoin is a comparison of two closely related coins. Charlie Lee built Litecoin in late 2011 by copying Bitcoin's code and changing a few settings. They work the same way at heart, so the differences come down to speed, supply, mining method and a handful of upgrades.
What is the Litecoin vs Bitcoin comparison at a glance?
| Bitcoin (BTC) | Litecoin (LTC) | |
|---|---|---|
| Block target | About 10 minutes | About 2.5 minutes |
| Maximum supply | 21 million | 84 million |
| Mining algorithm | SHA-256 | Scrypt |
| Halving | Every 210,000 blocks | Every 840,000 blocks |
| Current block reward | 3.125 BTC | 6.25 LTC |
Both halve roughly every four years. CoinGecko says Bitcoin's last halving was on April 20, 2024. The Canary Litecoin ETF filing says Litecoin's next halving, to 3.125 LTC, is expected around July 2027, and that about 76.9 million LTC were outstanding as of February 2026.
How does Litecoin vs Bitcoin speed compare?
Litecoin adds blocks four times as often. Both networks adjust mining difficulty so blocks stay close to their target, and Trezor says Litecoin recalculates every 2,016 blocks, or about 3.5 days.
Faster blocks mean a payment usually gets its first confirmation sooner. They do not change how many confirmations a business or exchange asks for, which each one sets for itself. Bitcoin.org notes that any single block can arrive sooner or later than the average.
How do Litecoin vs Bitcoin fees and transaction fees work?
The fee model is the same. Bitcoin.org explains that fees depend on a transaction's size in bytes and on demand for block space, not on the amount sent. The Litecoin filing says the sender pays the fee and the miner who adds the block collects it, along with the block reward.
The difference is demand. Trezor describes Litecoin fees as relatively low, and the ETF filing says Litecoin transactions generally cost less than Bitcoin's. On both networks, fees rise when many people want to send at once, and exchanges set their own withdrawal charges on top. See what are crypto fees.
What else separates Litecoin and Bitcoin?
Mining. Litecoin uses Scrypt, which was meant to resist specialized machines. Trezor says Scrypt chips arrived anyway and now dominate Litecoin mining. Since 2014, Litecoin has also been merge-mined with Dogecoin.
Upgrades. Litecoin often tests ideas first. It activated SegWit on May 10, 2017, before Bitcoin. In May 2022 it added MWEB, an optional feature that hides transaction amounts.
Governance. Neither has an owner. Bitcoin.org says changes take effect only when users, miners and node operators adopt them. The Litecoin filing likewise says no official group controls Litecoin, and core developers issue releases that users and miners can choose to run.
Both coins remain volatile, and figures such as rewards and supply change over time.
This guide explains how things work. It is not financial, legal or tax advice. Last updated .