Litecoin price rallied above $73 for the first time since July fueled by rising demand from institutional investors and retail traders.
As Bitcoin BTC $84 731 24h volatility: 0.5% Market cap: $1.68 T Vol. 24h: $19.92 B price teases to rally above the crucial resistance/support level around $68k again, the altcoin market led by Litecoin LTC $74.97 24h volatility: 0.1% Market cap: $5.68 B Vol. 24h: $292.86 M , Ethereum ETH $1 583 24h volatility: 0.1% Market cap: $191.06 B Vol. 24h: $11.34 B , and Dogecoin DOGE $0.16 24h volatility: 1.2% Market cap: $23.30 B Vol. 24h: $625.55 M is gaining bullish momentum in tandem. According to the latest market data, Litecoin price has pumped over 12 percent in the past two weeks to trade at about $72.5 on Friday, October 18, during the early European session.
Consequently, the mid-cap altcoin, with a fully diluted valuation of about $6 billion and a daily average traded volume of around $556 million, has broken out of the horizontal consolidation. From a technical analysis point of view, Litecoin’s price against the US dollar established a robust support level of around $59, which has been strongly held since August 2023.
Since 2018, Litecoin’s price has been trapped in a macro triangular consolidation but has since approached the apex, thus signaling an imminent breakout on the horizon. Furthermore, the third largest crypto assets secured under the proof-of-work (PoW) consensus significantly underperformed in the 2021 bull run.
As a result, Litecoin has been placed in the same category as Ripple Labs-backed XRP and Monero (XMR) for largely underperforming despite the general wide adoption
Factors Leading to Litecoin Price Breakout
Since the approval of the US spot Bitcoin ETFs and spot Ether ETFs earlier this year, more fund managers have eyed the altcoin space for similar products. For instance, Canary Capital recently filed for a spot Litecoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) with the US SEC earlier this week.
The recent filing for spot LTC ETF by Canary Capital confirms the rising demand from institutional investors for the altcoin in the recent past. Already, Grayscale Investments has been offering its Litecoin trust to its clients and currently has a net assets under management of about $140 million. Additionally, Fidelity Crypto has been offering Litecoin services to its clients in the recent past.
As a result, market data analytics provided by Santiment shows that on-chain volume for Litecoin surged to a 16-month high of about $3.97 billion. The spike in Litecoin’s on-chain traded volume coincided with a notable surge in its online discussion across different social platforms.
📈 Litecoin is enjoying a nice mini run, jumping above $73 for the first time since July. This is its first mid-sized breakout from Bitcoin and altcoins since the spring. Two major factors are:
⚡️ LTC's continued rise of on-chain transaction volume, which has nearly crossed $4B… pic.twitter.com/oSKt7mRC2L
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) October 17, 2024
The Litecoin network has also registered notable growth through major partnerships in the recent past. For instance, Venmo, a payment processor backed by PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: PYPL), recently partnered with MoonPay to enable US customers to purchase crypto including Bitcoin, Ether, and Litecoin, among others.
Meanwhile, the Litecoin price breakout is also reacting to the October crypto bullish outlook, which is expected to continue in the coming quarters. Furthermore, the shifting global economic outlook, catalyzed by the recent Fed rate cut amid the upcoming U.S. 2024 election, has bolstered the crypto bullish sentiment.
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