Litecoin (LTC) spiked above $50.00 on Thursday, as demand for Bitcoin Cash (BCH) cooled amid growing concerns that it is heading for another crash. According to Bitcoin analyst Tuur Demeester, the next BCH selloff will likely push Litecoin prices sharply higher.
The Bitcoin Hedge?
Demeester refers to Litecoin as the “real Bitcoin hedge” due to its SegWit scaling solution. This means it can easily incorporate other technologies before they make their way to Bitcoin (the Lightning Network is one such example). Litecoin also has many similarities with Bitcoin, which makes it the logical choice for Bitcoin enthusiasts looking to hedge against volatility.
While this concept obviously doesn’t have much data behind it, market participants will have plenty of opportunity to test it. That’s because Bitcoin Cash is seen as increasingly volatile, even by cryptocurrency standards.
Since Bitcoin Cash branched off from its parent on Aug. 1, prices have struggled to demonstrate steady upward momentum. BCH spiked following the hard fork before losing more than half its value a few days later. Prices struggled up until last week, when the market turned higher.
At the time of writing, BCH controls more than $11 billion in assets, placing it third among world cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin takes the top spot at $69.1 billion. Ethereum is second at less than $30 billion.
Litecoin Sees Large Upside
Litecoin’s latest upsurge took prices to a high of $52.91, according to Bitstamp. Prices were last down around 1% at $52.30. At current values, the LTC market is worth roughly $2.7 billion.
The LTC/USD has further upside in store, based on the short-term oscillators. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) has climbed above 60 and the MACD shows continuing upward momentum. Prices are up around 18% over the past month and have returned more than 1,100% year-to-date.
Ripple Spikes and then Falls Again
Litecoin isn’t the only digital coin on the rise. Ripple (XRP) spiked 70% overnight on Wednesday as volume crossed $2 billion. Once again, trading on the Korean peninsula is largely responsible for the dramatic increase. South Korea has been a major driver of the cryptocurrency market as of late amid speculation it will become the second Asian country to regulate the digital payment arena.
Ripple pulled back sharply on Thursday to trade at $0.2492. That represents a drop of 8.5%, according to CoinMarketCap. The coin saw roughly $1.6 billion in volume over the past 24 hours.
Crypto Market Cap Reaches New High
The total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies topped $152 billion on Thursday, a new record high. The latest record comes despite Bitcoin and Ethereum both trading well off their peak levels.
There are now 11 cryptocurrencies valued at $1 billion or more. Monero is the latest addition. As of Thursday, it is valued at nearly $1.4 billion. BitConnect is also approaching the $1 billion milestone, and was last valued at roughly $831 million.
Total Cryptocurrency Market Cap (CoinMarketCap)
Source:
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