Hottest cryptocurrency is up 360% this year and its name isn't Bitcoin

This year's top-performing cryptocurrency is up more than threefold and you’ve likely never heard of it.

Litecoin, which has gained more than 330% since the beginning of the year, is outpacing all its crypto peers, including Ether and XRP, as well as the best-known and largest token Bitcoin. It has a market cap of about $8.4 billion, making it the seventh-largest digital asset, according to data compiled by Mosaic Research Ltd.

The rally can partly be attributed to Litecoin’s upcoming halving (also known as halvening), whereby the number of coins awarded to so-called miners is slashed by 50%. The idea is that