Litecoin Cash Split From Litecoin at Block 1,371,111

Litecoin reached block 1,371,111 at 19:33:24 UTC on February 18, 2018, activating the snapshot selected by Litecoin Cash for a new blockchain sharing Litecoin’s history through that height.

The split created Litecoin Cash, identified by the ticker LCC. Its developers promised that private keys controlling Litecoin at the designated block could claim ten LCC for every one LTC represented in the snapshot. Litecoin itself continued operating under its existing rules; the event did not replace Litecoin software or require Litecoin users and miners to adopt the new chain.

That distinction mattered. Litecoin Cash used Litecoin’s ledger as its starting point and borrowed its name, but it was operated by a separate development group. Litecoin creator Charlie Lee had stated before the event that neither he nor the Litecoin team was conducting the fork. He characterized projects using Litecoin’s name in that manner as scams intended to confuse users and warned holders against entering private keys or wallet seeds into unfamiliar software.

A different mining system

The Litecoin Cash developers described the project as a SHA-256 proof-of-work network, departing from Litecoin’s Scrypt mining algorithm. They argued that the change could give older Bitcoin mining equipment another network on which to operate. The project retained a targeted block interval of 2.5 minutes and announced a difficulty-adjustment system derived from DarkGravity.

Those were project specifications and claims, not independently demonstrated advantages on February 18. A different hashing algorithm could attract otherwise idle machines, but it did not guarantee sustained hashpower, broad miner participation or protection against attacks. Network security would depend on how much compatible computing power miners actually committed after the split.

The developers also said transaction fees would be reduced by 90% relative to Litecoin’s parameters and that replay protection and different address prefixes would help separate activity on the two networks. Coinburn found no independent event-day measurement establishing realized transaction costs, confirmation reliability or economic usage on the new chain. The stated percentage therefore describes a protocol setting announced by the project, not an observed user saving.

Why the fork mattered

Litecoin Cash extended a model already visible around Bitcoin: copy an established ledger, alter selected rules and distribute units to holders recorded at a predetermined block. The approach allowed a new network to begin with a large nominal ownership base without persuading users to purchase tokens in an initial sale.

A snapshot allocation was not the same as adoption, however. Holders still needed compatible software and control of the relevant private keys to claim LCC. Exchanges and custodians could decide independently whether to support the distribution. The ten-to-one ratio also said nothing about value; multiplying token units did not create a corresponding amount of purchasing power or liquidity.

The claiming process introduced a separate security concern. Litecoin Cash’s own announcement advised holders to wait for the fork, move their LTC to a new address and only then use the old private key with claim software. That procedure acknowledged the risk inherent in exposing a key that had controlled valuable Litecoin. Lee’s warning went further by questioning the project’s use of Litecoin’s identity and urging users not to provide keys or seeds to a website or client.

What the record establishes

The Litecoin blockchain record directly verifies block 1,371,111 and its February 18 timestamp. The project’s announcement establishes that this was its chosen snapshot height, its ten-to-one allocation and its planned SHA-256 rules. Independent reporting shortly afterward confirms that Litecoin Cash emerged from the designated block.

The surviving evidence does not establish how much independent hashpower, trading liquidity or user activity LCC had by the end of February 18. It also does not prove or disprove Lee’s scam characterization, which was a contemporaneous warning rather than a formal finding by a court or regulator.

Later context

A Litecoin Cash source-code repository and blockchain record remained accessible during this 2026 reconstruction. The current repository includes features added after the launch and therefore cannot, without commit-level reconstruction, be treated as an exact copy of the software available on February 18, 2018.