Litecoin Price Forecast: LTC HODLers Must Stay Sane as Bitcoin’s Mt. Gox Drama Plays Out
Daily Litecoin News Update
Bitcoin (BTC) prices have now dipped to a new year-to-date low, with the market—as always—mirroring this drop.
Litecoin prices are holding out against this drop. Yet, there is a growing concern that the fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) spreading across the Bitcoin world will sooner or later engulf baby-Bitcoin—that is, Litecoin (LTC).
The bullish bone in me repudiates this notion outright, but, in some tiny corner of my gut, there’s a slight tingle that maybe Litecoin will succumb to this pressure. At least, in the short run.
The strong affinity between the prices of the two cryptocurrencies cannot be disregarded. So it’s best that I first tackle why Bitcoin prices are slumping, and maybe then it will be easier to reach a reasonable forecast for Litecoin.
Chart courtesy of TradingView.com
In the last two months, $400.0 million worth of Bitcoin has been dumped in the market by a Japanese “whale” (a man with big money). This supposed whale, who is a trustee of the infamous and defunct cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox, holds another 160,000 BTC, which he was intending to continue dumping.
That is, until a court order in Tokyo forestalled his plans. He’s now forced to keep holding on to this massive pile of bitcoins for another six months.
Obviously, BTC speculators are preempting another significant drop in prices once the man resumes selling his ginormous stake. In that anticipation, they’re folding their cards too early. And the rest of the market is just following suit.
But here’s a little detail that they may have missed, which may help them change their minds (and you too, if you’re planning to sell your cryptocurrency stake in fear of another price drop).
In an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) session on April 4, the former CEO of Mt. Gox, Mark Karpelès, revealed that he is trying to take the bankrupt Mt. Gox into civil rehabilitation. It may allow him, as a major shareholder, to regain hold of the 160,000 BTC lying with the trustee and distribute them to the people who lost their bitcoins in the Mt. Gox hack that led to the bankruptcy. (Source: “I’m Mark Karpelès, ex-CEO of bankrupt MtGox. Ask me anything.,” Reddit, last accessed April 5, 2018.)
If it works out, the bearish speculators would turn out to be incredibly wrong in their prophecy. Regardless, all this commentary should have at least made one thing crystal clear to you: whatever is happening in the Bitcoin world has nothing to do with Litecoin.
In the case of regulations, for instance, it made sense for the cryptocurrency market to jointly react to bad news, since strict Bitcoin regulations must have a ripple effect across the industry. So the market sell-offs following Chinese bans or South Korean regulations were probably warranted.
But a sell-off in Litecoin due to Bitcoin dumping is just plain stupid.
Analyst Take
There should be no reason for Litecoin “HODLers” to irrationally react to the price drop that Bitcoin will face in the short term, courtesy of the Mt. Gox drama.
It’s best to hold one’s horses and wait for the market to recover. Litecoin is reaching an inflection point following recent associations with merchant processors and startups like Abra.
So, my eyes are set on the long term with a Litecoin price forecast unaltered at $400.00.
