The first of January this year, 2019, saw Litecoin sitting at $30 after a prolonged bearish period in the cryptocurrency markets known as the Crypto Winter. Then the bulls got a hold of the crypto market and ran with it – leading to a massive increase in the total market cap and a fresh wave of enthusiasm.
One of the leading lights of this new surge was Litecoin (LTC), which jumped in value by over 500% and is now sits at around $140.
The reason for Litecoin’s massive bull run has been, in part, due to the halving that is coming up in just under 60 days. The positive traders, the major bulls, expect this trend to continue – well past the halving and are awaiting the fourth largest cryptocurrency in the world to continue to show strength based on a variety of factors.
However, there are always contrarians, and in this case, they are saying that Litecoin has had its days – the halving has done its work and the potential future profits would be flat at best, and would halve along with the network at worst. These contrarians are the bears, your extremely risk-averse traders that see plummeting prices behind every corner and the charts may back their views.
Halving, the main driver of Litecoin bull run
Whatever the opinions come int the future, for now, all traders agree that the price increase of LTC is being driven mainly by the halving of block rewards that are happening in a couple of months. A halving is a significant event in any cryptocurrency and is a system whereby the reward for mining is halved. Miners are the ones who validate all transactions on a network and are thus crucial to the well being of a cryptocurrency.
What a halving does is limit supply so that current demand is constricted and the price of the asset goes up. This provides further incentive for miners to continue with their work and gives investors in the cryptocurrency a nice profit from their earlier investments.
What does this mean for LTC?
The difference in opinions, throughout the market, is whether the halving will have a positive or a negative effect on prices at this time. While many are looking at the market as a whole and seeing continued growth in all areas of the cryptocurrency market, others are more pessimistic.
The pessimists see Litecoin plummeting to around $55 after the initial euphoria of the halving passes, and believe that the pre-halving rally has frontloaded the price meaning that this is about as high as it will go for the time being barring unforeseen circumstances. This probably is a possibility that can’t be ignored.
The optimists see the halving as the start of a surge to a thousand dollar value of Litecoin, and a return to previous highs shortly. There is a middle path, and many are not giving this view enough attention. It could well be that the market has subconsciously priced in the halving already, but that the increasing appetite for crypto assets will provide the continued push that is needed for Litecoin to slowly but surely increase in price.
At the press time, LTC price stands at $137.79 after going up by over 35% in the last seven days. Both hourly and daily price charts of the coin are green, too.
Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.
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