Litecoin price has sank recently along with the greater crypto market, despite not being named a security by the US SEC.
The downward pressure has the altcoin at risk of forming a death cross on the daily timeframe. Although the signal sounds ominous and often indicates a downtrend is coming, it might not be lights out for LTC after all. Let’s take a look.
Lackluster Litecoin Performance Ahead of Halving Attributed to SEC
With Litecoin’s halving just weeks away, the currently eleventh-ranked cryptocurrency by market cap was expected to perform better than it has.
Fundamental and technical signals both point to LTC being undervalued, yet the coin has suffered alongside other altcoins from SEC-related sell pressure.
The US SEC is trying to kill the crypto industry, and its causing LTCUSD daily charts to inch closer to an ominous death cross.
Its this a valid breakout of the downtrend line? |
Doing A Double-Take On The Daily LTCUSD Death Cross
A death cross occurs when the 50-day moving average crosses below the 200-day moving average from above. This is considered a sell signal in a moving average-based trading system, and often precedes a negative trend change. But not always.
A closer look at the 2020 death cross into golden cross |
The chart above shows an example of a previous death cross from late 2020, which immediately rolled into a golden cross as soon as Litecoin found some support and started rising again.
LTCUSD went on a massive rally lasting several weeks of upside. For this situation to repeat, Litecoin absolutely has to recover from current levels and resume its formerly bullish momentum. Otherwise, a death cross could lead to renewed selling from investors who expected more out of the halving.
Death cross and golden crosses can sometimes trigger back and forth in a choppy market, which is a drawback of using moving averages as trading signals. This is due to volatile price action pulling the faster moving average back and forth through the slower moving average. Furthermore, as an average of price action, moving averages are lagging indicators in general.
A golden cross must be left on the chart when the all the consolidation ends, otherwise the looming death cross signal could have truly deadly implications. With Litecoin’s halving scheduled for under 45 days from now, anything is possible.