Litecoin (LTC) Outperforms Rivals: On-chain Data Points to Whale Accumulation
• Litecoin (LTC) has outperformed its top-ranking rivals Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), rising 5.5%.
• The Federal Reserve’s 25 basis points rate hike appears to be the key driver behind the current LTC price rally.
• On-chain data suggests that the Litecoin supply held by whales is increasing, potentially in preparation for the upcoming halving.
Litecoin Price Rally
Litecoin (LTC) emerged as one of the best-performing cryptocurrencies on March 23, surpassing its top-ranking rivals Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). LTC price rallied 5.5% to reach an intraday high of around $92.50, while the total crypto market capitalization has risen 2.25% to $1.14 trillion, with BTC and ETH rising 1.79% and 1.42%, respectively.
The Fed’s Rate Hike
The Federal Reserve’s 25 basis points rate hike on March 22 appears to be the key driver behind Litecoin beating its crypto rivals over the past 24 hours; since then, LTC price rallied over 15% versus BTC and about 14.5% versus ETH. Additionally, traders likely saw this as a “buy the dip” opportunity for Litecoin with more upside potential due to it having relatively underperformed in March compared to other cryptos (-6.5%).
Whale Accumulation
On-chain data shows a rise in Litecoin supply held by addresses with a balance between 1 million and 10 million LTC in March; additionally, there is a decrease in the share of supply held by addresses with a balance between 100,000 LTC and 1 million LTC. This could suggest that whales are accumulating ahead of Litecoin’s upcoming halving event scheduled for August 2021 – when miners will receive half as many coins per block mined as they currently do – which could see prices increase due to reduced supply against continued demand from investors.
Conclusion
All factors considered – such as increased whale activity being observed through on-chain metrics along with investor sentiment surrounding Litecoin’s upcoming halving event – suggest that there may well be further upside potential for LTC prices in 2021 if these trends continue into Q2 2021 and beyond
