The slow bitcoin rally has finally ended. The sell-off last Thursday and Friday pushed prices down to the $435 level. Its little brother Litecoin is still in its own uptrend after bouncing strongly at the $3.78 dollars figure.
Bitcoin Uptrend Ends
The long but slow bitcoin rally is finally over. On Thursday prices broke below the lower bound of the triangle pattern. On Friday a low of $434.86 was hit.
The $435 figure was noted in our previous article as a potential downtrend starting point. Because we didn’t get a decisive break of the level but a shallow move below, the short-term picture remains neutral. The medium-term trend is still up but the long-term trend for BTC is neutral as well.
What’s next for bitcoin? The two major points of interest are $435 on the downside and $465 on the upside. A clean break below $435 could start a new short-term downtrend. Support below here can be found at $426 dollars (the breakout point for the previous rally) followed by the $412 swing low and the round $400 figure.
On the upside, a breakout above the $462-$465 resistance area would resume the BTC rally. The major resistance for bitcoin is the round $500 figure. This was last year’s high for BTC/USD on most exchanges. A decisive breakout above here could intensify the gains.
Litecoin Still in Rally Mode
Alternative crypto-currency Litecoin is still in rally mode. The bitcoin selling lead to a sympathy move lower in LTC/USD. On Fxopen a low of $3.78 dollars was hit last Friday. This is exactly the level we noted last week as a potential trend stopper. Luckily for the bulls, right at this figure the sell-off ended and a recovery rally took prices to a high of $3.98 dollars on Saturday. We’re currently quoted at $3.95 dollars per coin.
The technical picture is mostly unchanged for LTC. A decisive break below $3.78 would end the current rally. Both the short-term and medium term trends are up while the long-term trend is still neutral.
A breakout above the highs of ascending triangle at at $4.194 would resume the momentum move higher. Above here we have resistance at the $4.50 figure, followed by the $4.85 swing high and the round figure at $5 dollars. The next potential resistance level is at $8.64 dollars. This was the 2015 high for Litecoin. As we’ve written previously, due to the large price gap between $5 and $8.64 dollars, resistance levels are likely to emerge in between. Potential candidates include the round figures at $6, $7 and $8 dollars, as well as the 50 cents figures at $6.50 and $7.50 dollars per coin.
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