As bearish continuations continue to plague the Bitcoin trading market, other cryptocurrencies are also facing the wrath of such pessimism. For over a week, each and every top altcoin (except the centralized ones like Stellar and Ripple) have come closer to their respective price bottoms. However, our focus here is on Litecoin, the second-most traded cryptocurrency in the world.
Being the closest cryptocurrency to Bitcoin has its perks, and troubles. Litecoin is among the only altcoins in the market whose price movements display a strong identicalness to Bitcoin. This pattern somewhat reflects also in cases where Bitcoin stumbles amid huge selling pressure.
As you can see on the chart above, the LTC/USD dropped drastically for over a week (especially between December 15th and 16th) – almost around 5%. The market cap meanwhile shrank to $1.04 billion after plummeting from $1.20 billion last week, indicating traders dumping Litecoins either for fiat currencies, or other profitable altcoins.
The technical indicators are not favoring Litecoin as well. Since last week, the LTC/USD has been trading below its key SMAs and EMAs, while the RSI in the last two days have remained below 25, indicating an oversold position. The price however is still floating above its next key support level of 2.75, waiting for another rally in the Bitcoin market. But at this point of time, the Litecoin market continues to remain in a strong bearish bias, while awaiting bullish corrections.
Another thing the Litecoin market, as whole, awaits is mass merchant and user adoption. The coin certainly lags behind its emerging competitors in terms of both features and marketing. The increasing supply from the miners’ end is another issue the silver coin is plagued with. Optimists still expect the next block reward halving to act as a catalyst to a notable price jump, but the demand still has to be a little higher than the halved-supply to see any notable upward movements.
“This has been a rough ride so far, but it’s to be expected…this isn’t an easy thing that digital currency is trying to accomplish,” commented a passionate Litecoin follower FreeJack2k2 on Reddit. “It’s requiring a huge shift in public perception and that will take time and effort. Price reflects the pace of adoption and although we have a lot of business being built around it, the adoption hasn’t come yet. It’s one of those, “If you build it, they will come” things.”
