Litecoin (LTC) Price Prediction for 2021: Missing Out on the Crypto Rally

Last Update: January 11th, 2022

Content

• LTC/USD Price Forecasts
• Forecast Summary
• LTC/USD Live Chart
• Price Prediction for the Next 5 Years
• LTC/USD Technical Analysis

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MARKETS TREND The market trend factors in multiple indicators, including Simple Moving Average, Exponential Moving Average, Pivot Point, Bollinger Bands, Relative Strength Index, and Stochastic.

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After the surge of the first four months of 2021, Litecoin reversed on increased uncertainty regarding cryptocurrencies. China started a crackdown on Bitcoin in particular but also on other cryptos which has escalated, banning mining and trading/payments, which turned the sentiment negative in the crypto market until late July. Since then, the sentiment has improved in the market and Bitcoin and Ethereum are heading for all-time highs, but Litecoin is missing out on this rally in the main cryptocurrencies.

Litecoin was heavily affected by the crypto crackdown, losing 75% of the value from the top at $417, which in fact is a double top considering the 2017 high at $420. After falling to $120 in May, the next wave of the selloff in the crypto market took Litecoin to $105. Although, more countries are adopting and legalizing cryptocurrencies, which will turn out to be positive for Litecoin in the long run, while in the meantime cryptocurrencies have reversed higher again and are resuming the large bullish trend. The gains of the last several weeks are not as big as during the Jan-May period, although they have been consistent, pointing to further gains.

Litecoin joined the big crypto party a little late, towards the end of December 2020, but it made up for the late entry, having broken above $ 247 by the middle of February. Although it continued the bullish trend with ups and downs, taking the price to $417 and the market cap reached a record high of $27.89 billion.

Litecoin, which started life in October 2011, as the second cryptocurrency to challenge Bitcoin, remains a top 10 altcoin in terms of market cap, which at the moment stands at around $8.50 billion. But it is pretty dynamic, so we can expect it to change continuously.  It was launched at $ 0.1 and remained quite low, but at the end of 2017, it surged to $ 420. Then, we saw another attempt at turning the Litecoin price bullish in 2019, which took the price to $ 145, but the technicals brought it down, and kept it there until the second half of 2020, when the second “gold rush” for cryptos started. Litecoin benefited greatly from the revived demand for digital currencies, and we saw it climb to $ 417 in May 2021. However, after the retreat, it consolidated above $100 for a couple of months and then started resuming the bullish trend again.

Recent Changes in the Litecoin Price

Factors Affecting Litecoin

Similar to Bitcoin, Litecoin is a cryptocurrency with a long-term projected growth, as the Litecoin team claims, although many other crypto developers claim the same. But Litecoin, as a digital currency, was the catalyst that got the entire cryptocurrency industry going. The transaction speed was Litecoin’s main advantage over Bitcoin. It placed Litecoin in the crypto market as a strong financial asset with long-term growth potential, which is materializing with the new developments.

Litecoin announced a shift from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake on June 2020. This increases the scalability and makes it cheaper to mine, which attracted Flare, encouraging it to integrate with Litecoin and make Litecoin transactions possible through the Flare Network, while giving Litecoin holders free Spark (Flare) tokens. PayPal has also added Litecoin as a means of payment, which makes this crypto increasingly attractive for everyday use, hence the 450% increase in value since October 2020, up to $ 172 by August 2021, according to my broker. However, the climb wasn’t so straightforward, as sentiment in the crypto market turned softer in the beginning of summer which sentLitecoin more than $300 down, facing the 20 SMA on the way down on the monthly chart, where it bounced from.

The cryptocurrency market has turned massively bullish since October 2020 and despite the latest crash, it remains bullish overall. The value of the crypto market increased many times within the scope of several months. This is due to the uncertainty regarding the economic and political situation around the globe, which has given digital currencies safe haven status. Bitcoin surged above $ 45,000 this month, with Ethereum following suit, suddenly taking all the attention in financial markets. While certain shares, like Amazon and Tesla, have performed extremely well in these times of COVID-19, the crypto market has outperformed everything. In this article, we will take a look at the factors that are keeping the LTC/USD bullish, and the projections for the future.

Will Litecoin Remain a Safe Haven?

Cryptocurrencies have received a lot of attention from investors recently, as the material world becomes too unstable. They have been at the center of attention before; towards the end of 2017, the attention of the financial world turned to the cryptocurrency market for the first time. Until then, cryptocurrencies were just some new internet thing, but after that surge, they earned recognition as a separate market, while the recent surge in late 2020 and so far in 2021 is earning them the status of an important market at the very least, and a safe haven for most traders and investors.

Digital currencies used to be considered a high risk market, which attracted traders who were looking for high return-high investments, considering the instability of the market, the high volatility and the large spreads. Traditional precious metals, like gold and silver, which once acted as safe havens, retained this status until August last year. But they have been declining since then, even with the USD on a strong downtrend. Due to the reshaping of the global economy, and possibly also global politics, nothing is safe to buy and hold, as a way for investors to store their cash. As a result, cryptocurrencies look safer now, given their decentralized and anonymous nature.

As a result, they have been acting as safe havens since October 2020, attracting funds from large investors and businesspeople/companies. Bitcoin has been leading the surge, but Litecoin joined the party in November, and Ethereum is still keeping the party going for cryptos, as it keeps making new highs. However, the surge in Litecoin stalled at $ 185, which is a long way from the top figure of $ 420 that it achieved in December 2017. In fact, the price has turned bearish since January 10, and it is now trading at $ 120s. With all this volatility, going up and down 30-40% in just a few days, is hard for it to keep its safe haven status. But, after all is said and done, Litecoin is still worth three times as much as it was in October last year, so the safe haven status remains.

Fundamentals and Recent Developments for Litecoin

There have been quite a few developments in Litecoin over the past year. It saw a rise in activity in September last year, when the new MimbleWimble update was launched. In August last year, Litecoin had over 92,278 active wallets in 24 hours, according to Foundation Director David Schwartz, who said that the cryptocurrency, Litecoin, was more than both Bitcoin Cash and BSV combined, at 90,446. This indicated that Litecoin was resurging in terms of investment, transactions and transfers. The launch of MimbleWimble brought privacy features to Litecoin. It was implemented in September 2020 and directed by the lead developer, David Burkett. The new MimbleWimble will provide the benefit of privacy and enable faster transactions on the Litecoin Network. Therefore, MimbleWimble will have a different verification mechanism than Bitcoin.

Besides this, the Creator of Cardano and CEO of IOHK, Charles Hoskinson, revealed his intentions to establish cooperation with the creator of Litecoin, Charlie Lee. He sent his intentions via Twitter, stating that he loved the idea of a cross-chain communication between Litecoin and Cardano. He added that there were many possible ideas to be discussed. In response to this, the creator of Litecoin replied with the word “sure”, indicating that he approved of the idea of working together. Therefore, it is expected that the relevant persons from both foundations will get together to discuss the matter soon.

And not only Cardano is planning to partner with Litecoin; Flare Networks is also planning to integrate with them. The aim is to bring decentralized financial services (DeFi) to their currency, allowing LTC “to be used trustlessly on Flare with Ethereum style smart contracts” and promising “interoperability and composability” for it. The company, Flare Networks, announced earlier this month that they will airdrop Spark (FLR) tokens to Litecoin holders in advance of their mainnet launch later this year. We mentioned earlier that PayPal has also adopted Litecoin, starting from early this year. According to them “The migration toward digital payments and digital representations of value continues to accelerate, driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and the increased interest in digital currencies from central banks and consumers.” 

At the end of July 2021, BitPay which is the world’s biggest provider of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency payment services, announced that it was going to support Litecoin in the BitPay Wallet app. Businesses using BitPay are expected to accept Litecoin as a payment method from any wallet.

As we mentioned above, Litecoin started life at $ 0.10 in 2011 and was trading at around $ 5 until 2017, when it started to turn bullish, taking off towards the end of that year, and reaching $ 420. After the big surge came the big crash, and Litecoin fell back down to $ 22, after a short-lived bounce off the 20 SMA (gray) on the monthly chart below. In 2019 buyers attempted to turn Litecoin bullish again, and they managed to push the price higher to $ 45, but couldn’t break the 20 SMA despite piercing it briefly. So, this moving average turned from support into resistance and rejected the price again early in 2020, while coming back to play again in May/June 2021. LTC/USD surged towards the end of 2020 and in the first several months of 2021, although in May and June we saw a big crash in this market. Litecoin fell to $105 but the 20 SMA (gray) held as support on the monthly chart and in July the candlestick formed a pin, which is a bullish reversing signal after the crash. August’s candlestick already looks bullish so the reversal up is already underway.

The 20 SMA has turned into support for LTC/USD on the monthly chart

On the weekly chart below, Litecoin formed a resistance at $ 185 in May 2018 after the decline from $420 in December 2017, while a base formed in the low $ 20s, which has acted as support. Moving averages, such as the 100 SMA (green) and the 200 SMA (purple), provided some resistance for Litecoin, but they were broken in November 2020 and turned into support immediately, suggesting further bullish momentum, which came in the following weeks. Litecoin surged until May, with the 20 SMA (gray) pushing it higher. But, by the middle of that month, the crash came and the 20 SMA was broken. But, the other MAs at the bottom held as support, so the price started bouncing from there and is heading towards the 20 weekly SMA again now.

The MAs at the bottom seem to push the lows higher on the weekly chart

On the daily time-frame, the smaller period moving averages turned into support, with the 20 SMA (gray) and the 50 SMA (yellow) holding the price during pullbacks and pushing the trend higher. They were broken after the crash in May. The 200 SMA (purple) was providing support for this digital currency for some time in June, when the price was retreating but it gave way and Litecoin continued lower. The 20 SMA turned into resistance for Litecoin although in July we saw a bullsih reversal in the crypto market and Litecoin broke above those moving averages. But, now LTC/USD buyers are facing the 100 SMA (green) and the 200 SMA as resistance just above the current price. If Litecoin breaks above them, then the bullish trend will beback on.

The 200 SMA has turned into the ultimate resistance on the daily chart

Litecoin Live Rate