There has been an upward trend in cryptocurrency markets over the past 24 hours, with gains of 6.5 percent. But Litecoin (LTC) has delivered outstanding returns.
At press time, LTC was trading at $79.00 with a market capitalization of $5.6 billion. By market capitalization, Litecoin has now surpassed both Solana and Shiba Inu. Over $2.18 billion in 24-hour Litecoin trading volume has also increased by nearly 200 percent.
Litecoin has outperformed all of the major players with a 37 percent weekly gain. It hasn't just been the last week! Crypto markets have outperformed LTC since June.
Bitcoin evangelist Michael Saylor recently compared Litecoin and Bitcoin. Like Bitcoin, Litecoin is a commodity, according to Saylor. SEC is investigating every major cryptocurrency on the market to determine whether it is a security.
Whales are returning to Litecoin
Whale activity is one of the major reasons for the current price action of LTC. According to Santiment, an on-chain data provider:
Over the past two weeks, addresses holding 1k to 100k $LTC have accumulated $43.4M in coins, taking the price to an all-time high above $80.
The whale cohort holding the most coins, between one million and ten million, has increased its bag size since November 2. There were 2.4 million LTC added to the bags of this cohort alone.
Litecoin's MVRV (market value to realized value) has also surged above 15 percent, indicating some risk. Therefore, we can expect a cooling of the LTC price in the near future. However, according to the Santiment report:
For the first time since December 2nd, 2021, the 365-day MVRV shows long-term traders are back in positive territory. It is possible that this key turning point could signal some short-term optimism that may fuel a price rise after short-term trading returns have settled down.
It is believed that the upcoming reward halving in eight months will be one of the reasons for the renewed bullish sentiment in LTC. Litecoin's third halving event may positively impact LTC's supply dynamics.