Litecoin benefits from another added mixed mining asset – Bellscoin (BEL). The new asset, introduced by F2Pool, is boosting the hashrate for both Litecoin and Dogecoin. 

Litecoin mining is changing, after the addition of a new asset for shared block production. Bellscoin (BEL) will join Dogecoin to use the already secure network for block production. 

Litecoin also saw its hashrate expand in the past week, from a low of 959 TH/s to 1.17 PH/s. The balance of mining pools is also shifting due to the effect of BEL. The addition of Bellcoin extends the recent trend of returning to mined assets after the boom in token creation. 

The biggest change in blocks discovered is for f2Pool, the second-biggest entity on the network. At the same time, the past few weeks saw Binance pool slow down its mining by more than 60%.

One possible reason may be the potential volatility of Bellscoin and the need to vet the project before offering it as part of the Binance mining package. In any case, the Binance mining pool now produces some BEL coins, which may come into play in the future. Bellscoin 

BEL has been trading for less than a day and is still in early price discovery. BEL traded around $0.76, relying on an initial low-liquidity listing on CoinEx. At this point, the mined coin is no different from a speculative token. Early mining, however, is the best period to establish holdings and wait for a more favorable price. 

Additionally, Litecoin mining has a low breakeven potential, even with the added DOGE in every block. BEL may be the factor to bring back miners for the potential of higher profitability. 

Litecoin miners already have access to Scrypt rigs, or offers to buy even more efficient machines. Litecoin L9 is the most powerful rig at the moment, optimized for producing both LTC and DOGE. The addition of BEL may boost demand for the rig.

Investing in rigs, especially when mining is heating up, is still risky. The currently available L9 retails at $13,400. At the currently available hashrate, new miners may find themselves in a deep loss if they decide to invest in mining BEL. For existing miners, the opportunity may add to their LTC and DOGE earnings. Both LTC and DOGE are highly liquid and relatively stable, offering a predictable way to realize mining profits. LTC traded at $65.26 even after the latest market correction, and DOGE stepped back to $0.097.

BEL mining was announced at the end of August, and may start to affect the mining economy soon. F2Pool is one of the bigger pools, mostly dedicated to Bitcoin’s network. Recently, the pool started adding smaller assets, such as Aleo, a new coin that allows miners to use their NVidia GPU for token creation. 

BEL joins a growing list of mined assets, which try to differentiate themselves from tokens. Those include Kaspa (KAS), as well as privacy coin Xelis (XEL). Mining does not guarantee a coin’s trading success, but may work as a marketing tool in a market hungry for bullish trades.

Dogecoin founder receives Bellscoin donations

The most curious thing about Bellscoin is that it is the creation of one of the Dogecoin co-founders, Billy Markus. While Jackson Palmer moved away from crypto after creating Dogecoin, Markus seemed to like the space and returned with a new coin. 

Billy Markus, also known as Shibetoshi Nakamoto, is becoming an informal mascot of BEL. Shibetoshi Nakamoto is not shilling BEL directly, or even mentioning the asset. 

The BEL community, however, decided to donate to an address tagged as belonging to Shibetoshi Nakamoto, with the intention of turning him into a top 50 whale. The donations also look like a part of the marketing efforts to shill BEL.

For miners, BEL may be a no-risk proposition, as they receive the block rewards anyways. Yet the coin is getting very active shilling from crypto influencers, with extremely bullish price predictions. 

Bellscoin claims to be the new version of a very old asset, launched by Billy Markus back in 2013. In any case, the X handle of Shibetoshi has not mentioned anything of reviving the coin. The BEL asset is also extremely illiquid, and may be pumped back to a higher level to lure in new buyers. 

One of the reasons why Binance has diminished its mining of Litecoin is that the BEL asset may not fit the criteria for listing. BEL may rally in the short term, but in the end, early miners may benefit more than buyers. 

Cryptopolitan reporting by Hristina Vasileva