Litecoin (LTC) has become the most utilized cryptocurrency for payments for the second consecutive month in December, outperforming all major tokens including Bitcoin (BTC). LTC’s share in global payments increased from 34.52% in November to a record high of 38.25% in December, according to BitPay’s tracking.
Data from Glassnode revealed that more people preferred using LTC over the combined total of BTC and Ethereum (ETH) for purchasing goods and services. LTC’s transaction count in December saw a significant increase, breaking all previous records with daily transactions peaking at 1.27 million on December 20th.
In comparison, Bitcoin recorded less than half of this number on the same day. The USD value of cryptocurrencies transferred on-chain also witnessed a significant rise in December, with LTC’s transfer volume reaching its highest level since July, averaging $2.7 billion throughout the month.
Despite Litecoin’s impressive on-chain metrics, it failed to exert any upward pressure on its native token. CoinMarketCap reported that “Digital Silver” lost 11% of its market value in the previous month. LTC has been trading significantly below its 2023 peak in recent months.
The Network Value to Transactions (NVT) ratio, which is inversely related to LTC’s transaction volumes, has been steadily declining over the past few months. This suggests that network usage is outpacing market value growth, historically seen as a bullish signal.