Bitcoin Rallies as Altcoins Falter

Bitcoin continues the slow but unrelenting rally. We’re currently quoted at $1,190 dollars per coin, up from $1,147 last week. Litecoin prices are up too, albeit with much higher volatility.

Bitcoin Enters Bull Market

Bitcoin has technically entered a bull market again on the daily charts. We’re trading at $1,190 right now, up by 3.8 percent since last week.

The gains have been slow but steady. Yesterday we topped out at $1,199.99 on bitcoin currency trading broker FXOpen, just narrowly below the $1,200 round figure. It seems that a lot of these gains are on the back of the deflating altcoin bubble. For example, the previous high flyers Ether and Dash are now struggling to find support.

The all-time high for BTC/USD on FXOpen was at $1,269 dollars. On other exchanges prices traded as high as $1,330 during the ETF speculation frenzy. Aside from these two numbers, the round figures at $1,200, $1,250 and $1,300 are potential resistance levels. To end the current rally the bears will have to push prices below the $1,050 level.

Litecoin Volatility Spikes

Litecoin volatility spiked during the previous seven days. Prices hit a high of $12.55 on April 6th as it seemed certain that segwit will reach the critical 75 percent threshold. That number quickly dropped down lower however and prices eased up a bit from the highs.

Then a series of tweets by Wang Chun from F2pool (largest LTC pool) implied that the pool may withdraw its segwit signaling. This caused a panicked market reaction during which a low of $9.39 was hit. The drama doesn’t end here, however.

After segwit signaling dropped to the 60% range, the LTC creator Charlie Lee send out this tweet, calling for the community to re-route around miners and activate segwit with UASF (User Activated Soft Fork). Without getting too technical, this is a somewhat risky proposal that could result in a chain split. In a recent tweet, Charlie alludes to this possibility. The UASF option hasn’t been used in bitcoin (yet) because it’s considered a ‘nuclear option’ that could pit the community and the miners against each other.

With LTC prices at only $9.55 right now from the lows around $8.75, it seems that speculators are positive but not ecstatic with the UASF turn of events. Segwit signaling is back to 70% but we’re not seeing the usual bullish market reaction. Technically the Litecoin rally will remain in place until the $6.50 support level is taken out.

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