Litecoin (LTC) Tries to Break Free in Bear Market but Big Brother BTC Still Dominant
Litecoin (LTC) saw a price surge yesterday after news about LitePay and LitePal broke, however, it did not manage to retain the high as BTC took a dive.
Litecoin, literally the lighter version of Bitcoin, typically follows its elder sibling very closely in terms of price, but over the weekend, it tried to break free from the ongoing bearish trend following news about two payment processors, LitePay and LitePal.
However, the surge, from around $150 to $175 proved short-lived and LTC price dropped back under $150 in a few hours, and is currently trading under $135.
News about LitePay was published on the Express yesterday, with quite a sensational title: “HUGE Litecoin announcement – ‘gamechanger’ LitePay to launch in days”.
The publication quoted an analyst, lauding the development as a major step for Litecoin, comparing it to the popular BitPay service, which allows merchants to accept Bitcoin payments without having to worry about exchange rates and liquidity.
“Take note that BitPay is currently charging about $5.00 transaction fees for processing Bitcoin transactions that take ages to confirm.
The best part is that Litecoin users will be able to convert litecoins to dollars and vice versa through their Visa-compatible LitePay cards, which will be usable at all ATMs or businesses that support Visa payments,” the analyst was quoted saying.
Following the LitePay news, Litecoin creator Charlie Lee also Tweeted about another payment processor, LitePal, which is also aimed at facilitating merchants and can consequently increase Litecoin adoption.
Currently Bitcoin, and as a result, the entire crypto market, is in a downtrend, with BTC dropping from over $10,000 on February 1, 2018 to $7,900 first, and then $7,542 following a brief surge back to $9,500.
Even though many in the industry have been predicting a surge back to previous heights, technical analysts believe the current correction may not be over yet and if Bitcoin continues to drop below $7,000, the it might find support around $5,000.
If Bitcoin continues to slide as expected, Litecoin will find it hard to stay afloat and we may see it touching the recent $105 low once again, regardless of the recent news.