While most altcoins are getting slaughtered, LTC shines propelled higher by Litepay and a new fork. Bitcoin continues its gains as well but stopped short of a new rally.

Bitcoin Higher but Stops Short of New Rally

Bitcoin prices traded even higher since our last update but they stopped short of triggering a new rally. We are currently quoted at $11,221 dollars, after topping out at $11,769 dollars earlier today.

A new uptrend requires a breakout above the $11,769 swing high but some market players may wait for the $12,161 swing high to give way too. On the way down the hurdle to starting a new downtrend is the $5,980 swing low. For now we remain in ‘wait and see’ mode here. Bitcoin is in range on the weekly charts as well. The monthlies are keeping the bullish bias but as we’ve said before it takes many months to form/break monthly trends.

Litecoin Surges 46 Percent

Litecoin has been the big winner during the past week. Prices surged higher and are quoted at $227 dollars right now. This is a gain of $72 dollars or just over 46 percent in seven days.

The two main drivers behind the gains have been Litepay and a new fork called Litecoin Cash. While Litecoin founder Charlie Lee called the new fork a “scam” many users seem to have taken up the offer, buying up LTC ahead of the fork in order to benefit from the ‘free coins’. This fork already transpired on Sunday as every Litecoin holder got 10 Litecoin cash coins. So far no major exchanges are supporting the new fork so it’s hard to derive its true value. But on the exchanges where it’s traded prices fluctuated wildly from $5 to $10 dollars per coin. It’s currently quoted at 0.000584 BTC or $6.44 dollars.

Technically LTC/USD is now in rally mode. The bears will need to push prices below $136 dollars to end it. Support above here can be found at the $150 and $160 round figures, followed by the $168.13 and $173.25 swing highs. Higher still there’s more support at the former resistance now turned support at $196.22 and at the $200 round figure. On the weekly and monthly charts Litecoin is also in an uptrend.

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