Litecoin Price Struggles Below $100, Will Bearish Sentiment Prevail?

Litecoin price just concluded a bearish week but recent attempts to bounce back have not yielded the expected results.

Instead, LTC price dropped below $100. To recap, at $99 earlier, LTC was down by 23% from its highest price in the last 7 days.

After which it fell another 7.53% to see a new low at $96.06 at the time of writing.

This performance also means it rapidly approached and fell through its support near the $97 price tag.

LTC price action/ source: TradingView

The $97 support level means Litecoin price could potentially bounce back from the same level if it secures enough demand.

Failure to do so also means it could potentially slide lower.

Market Risks and Uncertainties Weigh Down Heavily on Investor Activity

Litecoin was among the top 50 coins that have tanked the most this week.

FUD fueled by recession concerns has resulted in bearish sentiment as investors adopt a cautious approach.

On-chain data especially in the derivatives segment confirms this outcome.

For example, liquidations were down to the lowest levels observed so far this month, mainly because of low appetite in the derivatives segment.

This was consistent with the decline in Litecoin futures open interest. For context, open interest peaked at $$915.72 million on 20 February.

That was its highest recorded peak and it has since dipped to $465.75 million at the time of observation

LTC open interest/ source: Coinglass

Derivatives volumes were down 42.38% to $690.31 million in the last 24 hours.

Spot flows maintained a negative stance just as been the case since the start of the year.

LTC had roughly $8.8 million in spot outflows in the last 24 hours.

Can LTC Whale Activity Save the Day?

The bearish market conditions have also spooked the whales judging by how they have performed in the last few days.

For context, whale activity declined sharply from 244.,330 LTC as of 5 March to 81,890 LTC as of 7 March.

LTC large holder netflows/ source: IntoTheBlock

Despite the decline, whale activity still had a net positive gain which confirms that some have been accumulating on the way down.

However, this accumulation has not been enough to shield price from more downside.

Nevertheless, there have been some interesting observations along the way.

Trader balances were up from 8.06 million LTC at the start of February to 12.19 million coins as of 7 March.

Meanwhile, cruiser balances dropped from 29.5 million coins to 24.2 million coins.

LTC balances by time held/ source: IntoTheBlock

The shift signals growing focus on shorter time frames on account of the higher levels of uncertainty in the market.

Meanwhile, long term holder balances grew slightly from 38.63 million LTC to 39.4 million LTC during the same period.

This growth confirms that some HODLers are taking advantage of the discounted prices.

This is noteworthy because the same class of LTC investors has been offloading coins since September.

This could indicate that HODLers anticipate more upside in Litecoin price in the coming months.

Source