How to Start Mining Litecoin: Your Complete Step-by-Step Guide

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You can make money on cryptocurrency not only on the exchange but also by its mining. But for Bitcoin and other coins with huge capitalization, profitable mining requires large investments. And mining altcoins, including Litecoin, can be profitable even for beginners. Let's look at how to start mining Litecoin (LTC) and how much you can earn from it.

Is Crypto Mining Worth It? Here's What You Can Earn

The interest in cryptocurrencies is growing. The size of investments in digital assets is multiplying from year to year. People use electronic coins not only as a means of investment but also to make online payments, including international ones. The growing popularity of crypto benefits all market participants, including miners. They create new blocks and ensure the passage of payments in the network.

Members of miners network receive rewards for the blocks added to the chain. Also, miners receive a part of the commission for transactions from other users.

As of April 2025, the average profitability of ASIC miners is around $100–200 per month for Bitcoin (e.g., Whatsminer M63S earns ~$209/month at $0.05/kWh) and $150–250 per month for Dogecoin (e.g., Antminer L9 earns ~$172/month at $0.10/kWh), depending on the hardware model, market conditions, and electricity costs. These estimates are generally accurate, though actual earnings may vary.

The payback period for investing in mining can be noticeably shorter than for more traditional ways of investing money. This is due to the rapid development of crypto-mining technologies and the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies. Starting from the first half of the 2020s, the world's leading investment banks and hedge funds not only recommend investing in crypto but also add digital coins to their portfolios themselves.

Mining Pool and Its Importance

Even a small farm is very expensive, and the chances of mining a new block and getting a reward for it are very small for each individual ASIC. That's why experienced miners join mining pools. A pool is a network in which all participants get a part of the reward for all the blocks mined by the ASICs in the pool. The higher the total hash rate of the pool — the greater the chances of mining a new block, so the higher the profit of all miners will be.

When choosing the best pool, it is important to carefully study the terms of connection. If you join the EMCD mining pool, the commission will be around 1.5%. And most other pools offer to work with a commission of 4-5%. So, with EMCD you will get more profit.

Other advantages of EMCD:

• 24/7 tech support and community help
• a custodial cryptocurrency wallet integrated into the platform, which supports most popular coins
• P2P platform for cryptocurrency exchange and withdrawal into fiat
• Coinhold savings cryptocurrency wallet

Can You Still Mine Litecoin with a GPU?

The scrypt algorithm, on which the Litecoin network operates, is characterized by high memory requirements for the equipment used. Therefore, although theoretically this coin can be mined on a GPU, in practice the profits will be minimal. It is much more efficient to use special ASIC miners for LTC mining. Such equipment is optimized to work with the scrypt algorithm and provides maximum performance.

If you want to mine on video cards, it is worth considering other coins. For cryptocurrencies whose algorithms reduce the performance of ASICs, mining on GPUs will be especially effective. The most promising of such coins are:

• Monero (XMR)
• Ravencoin (RVN)
• Vertcoin (VTC)

So, before you start mining Litecoin on a video card, it is worth studying the available alternatives.

Why Mining Litecoin on a Regular PC No Longer Makes Sense

Mining Bitcoin and other popular coins on a home PC was once profitable. But now the mining complexity for most coins has noticeably increased. Thus, mining Litecoin on the CPU or GPU of home PCs will be unprofitable. The income from such mining will be very small and it will not cover the electricity costs.

Top Hardware for Litecoin Mining

Profitable LTC mining is possible with ASIC miners. Such equipment is designed specifically for mining cryptocurrencies with a certain algorithm. Therefore, an ASIC can’t perform any other tasks but does crypto mining much more efficiently than any universal equipment such as PCs or video cards.

It is important to note that ASICs consume a lot of electricity and require reliable and powerful ventilation. Air-cooled models also create a lot of noise. Therefore, the ASICs farm usually requires a separate room.

A relatively high price is another disadvantage of such equipment. For example, the Bitmain Antminer L9 ASIC is priced around $12 000–14 000, depending on market conditions.

This model offers a hash rate of about 16 GH/s with a power consumption of around 3360 W.

Experts recommend considering the following ASIC models:

• Bitmain Antminer L9
• VolcMiner D1
• ElphaPex DG1+
• ElphaPex DG Home 1
• Bitmain Antminer L7
• Goldshell DG Max

As of April 2025, for a Bitmain Antminer L9 ASIC with a hash rate of 17 GH/s, the profitability is around $7–10 per day after electricity costs, depending on LTC and DOGE prices. Use a mining profitability calculator for a more accurate estimate. The amount of profit generated will depend on your electricity tariff. An online mining calculator can help you estimate the possible income more accurately.

Top Litecoin Mining Software Options

If you want to build a farm using ASICs, you will hardly need any additional software except for pre-installed firmware. But you can try to increase the profitability by using custom ASICs firmware. This is risky due to increased wear and tear of the hardware and a noticeable increase in power consumption.

If you want to join a mining pool, you would need mining software, which is often provided or recommended by pools. Most miners use mining software like:

• Awesome Miner
• CGMiner
• MultiMiner
• Cudo Miner
• NiceHash

If you want to try mining on video cards, you can use popular open-source software, for example:

• Easy Miner
• MultiMiner
• CPUMiner
• Awesome Miner

Summary

Mining Litecoin with a CPU or GPU doesn’t make sense anymore — they’re just too weak compared to modern ASICs. With a good ASIC miner, you can still make around $22 a day from a single device, but it depends on the coin’s price and electricity costs. Before buying one, make sure you’ve got a room with good airflow, can handle the noise and heat, and have access to cheap power. Without that, even powerful gear won’t pay off. A bit of planning goes a long way.

FAQ

How many Litecoins can be mined per day?

The exact number of mined coins depends on the complexity of mining and the hash rate of used devices. One ASIC with a hash rate of 17 GH/s can yield about 0.026 LTC per day.

What is the complexity of LTC mining?

As of April 8, 2025, Litecoin (LTC) mining difficulty is around 82.8 million, up from about 6.5 million in 2020. This steady growth reflects the increased competition among miners.

ASIC miners with a hash rate below 16–17 GH/s may no longer be efficient due to the network’s higher requirements.

By the end of 2025, mining difficulty could continue rising — some forecasts suggest it may reach or even exceed 90 million, which would further reduce profitability for outdated equipment.

What is the hash rate of Litecoin?

As the popularity of this coin grows, more and more miners are joining the network. Between 2022 and 2025, the total hash rate of LTC has grown from 400 TH/s to 2.4 PH/s (pentahashes per second). The hash rate growth has been particularly rapid since November 2024. This indicates a sharp rise in the popularity of mining for this coin.