In a move that is now widely considered as the best performing cryptocurrency in the first quarter of the year, Litecoin, the 4th largest digital currency by market capitalization has moved up more than 100% above its new year opening price of $30.

Now trading at $69 litecoin has shown traces of upward consistency in the first quarter of this year and has within the last three months more than doubled its January opening price of $30.

The bulls returning and the markets

Speculators have had every reason to believe this year that the bulls are returning and the markets are taking a “U” turn from the shock it experienced last year.

Recently, Bitcoin has been seen to have reached highs of around $4,900 which represents a major breakthrough which has kept the coin on positive swing.

Historical Record

According to historical data, the performance recorded by Litecoin in the first quarter of this year is the best recorded in 5 years and shows similar relations to the price surge experienced in 2017, a year in which there was explosive price increases.

Price Analysis

Analysis have revealed that the price increase seen in the first quarter of this year may be associated with the halving of the mining rewards implementation of which is due later this year.

As seen in recent times, the halving of Litecoin’s mining rewards invariably creates a supply deficeit as fewer coins are added to ecosystem, leading to a massive bid on the coin, six month in advance to the anticipated deficeit.

For instance, in August, 2015, when mining rewards were cut in halves from 50-25 Litecoin, litecoin price had surged up more than 700% from its January low of $1.12 to around $8.70 in July, before settling around $4.00 in preparation for August 25th, the actual halving date that year.

Therefore, as Litecoin’s mining rewards halving leans towards 12.5, if history repeats itself, Litecoin may see further price boost until the date of the mining rewards halving.