Litecoin price has stagnated around the $80 mark since the start of May 2024 despite positive sentiment surrounding the broader altcoin markets, what lies ahead for LTC?
Litecoin Price Stagnates at $80 amid Crypto Market Rally
The crypto market has made remarkable start to May 2024 amid positive macro economic indices reports in the US. But curiously, Litecoin price action has decoupled from the broader market trends, failing to capture double-digit gains like most mega-cap asset in the crypto market rankings.
Litecoin price opened trading at $79.5 on May 1. But since then, LTC has only moved upwards by only 3.2%, hovering at the $80.7 territory at the time of writing on May 9.
But in comparison, the TOTAL Crypto market cap recorded $162 billion growth, which represents a 7.9% bounce during the same timeframe, more than double LTC’s gains.
This implies that Litecoin has underperformed relative to the market average, so far in May 2024. And as expected, some strategic crypto traders have taken note, placing bullish bets to front-run an imminent price breakout.
Litecoin Bulls Raise Funding Rates Anticipating Major Breakout
After 10-days of stagnation and consolidation around the $80 territory, vital market indicators suggest that LTC bulls are making strategic moves to trigger a Litecoin price breakout.
Coinglass Funding Rate track the real-time changes in fees paid between LONG contract holders and SHORT traders.
LTC Funding rate was trending at 0.0008% on May 7. That figure has since surged considerably to hit 0.0121% on May 9. Meanwhile, LTC price has dipped 2% during that period.
Spikes in funding rate is a key indication that Litecoin bulls are growing confident, hence they are now paying higher fees (funding rate) on leverage positions to SHORT contract holders, in hopes of booking amplified profits when spot price increase.
With Litecoin bull traders deploying considerably higher leverage in the derivatives markets over the last 48 hours, it signals an overwhelming expectation of an imminent upswing in spot prices.
LTC Price Forecast: Imminent Breakout Above $100?
Litecoin price has stagnated at the $80 since the start of May 2024, despite over 162 billion growth in the global crypto markets. But, after 10 days of stagnation, LTC price looks set for a major breakout above $100, drawing insights from the increased leverage deployed by bullish speculative traders this week.
However, in the event of a Litecoin price breakout, IntoTheBlock’s chart below shows that bulls could face a major roadblock at the $88 level.
As seen above, 1.4 million active Litecoin addresses had acquired 10.9 million LTC at the average price of $87.89. If they opt to take profits early, LTC price could struggle to break above $100 as predicted.
On the flip side, in the event of a bearish reversal, the $75 buy-wall could offer significant short-term support. But given the rising funding rates observed this week, LTC looks more likely to advance towards $100 than succumb to a reversal below $70.