Even though every single cryptocurrency market is in the red right now, some coins are suffering more than others. Litecoin is taking a lot of blows on the chin right now. With the Litecoin price dropping by a whopping 33% overnight, things aren’t looking good at all. Then again, most of Litecoin’s trading volume originates from China, where a storm beyond proportions is brewing as we speak.
Litecoin Price Is Fading Quickly
People will always argue altcoins are losing value due to the falling Bitcoin price. That is 100% correct, but in some cases, that isn’t the only main factor. Litecoin is, unfortunately, a perfect example of how the regulatory changes in China can cripple markets in a heartbeat. Just a week or two ago, the Litecoin price surpassed $85 for the first time in history. Many people expected the popular altcoin would finally reach that illustrious $100 mark.
That trend never materialized, nor will it happen anytime soon. In fact, it appears the Litecoin price is going back to the value it had before the uptrend which started earlier this year. It has been a very good run for Litecoin, but the value is now well below the prices of July. It won’t take much more to push the value down to the June level or even lower if this trend keeps up.
With a Litecoin price of $34.08, it is evident things aren’t going all too well for the silver to Bitcoin’s gold. In fact, things have turned so sour, Litecoin literally lost 33% in value over the course of 24 hours. While these losses reflect a net USD loss – mainly thanks to Bitcoin tanking almost as badly – there is also an 18.63% loss against Bitcoin it. People are seemingly converting everything they have to Bitcoin in an effort to exit the cryptocurrency markets as quickly as possible.
Considering how Litecoin sees most of its trading activity, this decline in price is not surprising by any means. Although no one expected the Litecoin price to drop by so much in just a day, it is evident there will be little to no buy pressure originating from China for the foreseeable future. With $890m in 24-hour trading volume, the vast majority are sell orders and people dumping for whatever price they can get their hands on.
Looking at the current markets by trading volume, Bithumb is leading the charge, although OKCoin is not too far behind. Huobi is also in the top three, followed by GDAX and Bitfinex. What is very interesting here is how OKCoin and Huobi value Litecoin at $29.6 and lower. The rest of the world is still trading at $36 to $39. Once China is bringing down the price – which will happen eventually due to no exchanges or volume – it will be interesting to see how the markets respond.
For the time being, this negative pressure will continue for quite some time. Although we would all like to see things evolve in a different direction, cryptocurrency is all about taking the bad with the good. Sadly, the bad outweighs the good right now. This is only a trend, though, as it is impossible for the value to keep on going down forever. There is no reason for the Bitcoin and Litecoin price to remain low forever. We have seen how the value can be pushed to $5,000 per BTC without much help from China. Litecoin is a different matter, though, as it mainly “lives” in China in terms of trading.
