Litecoin (LTC) has bucked the trend in more than one way. For the first time in a long time, it has experienced a meaningful rise without the help from Bitcoin (BTC).
Since hitting a 2-week low of $4.60 on BTC-e 48h ago, LTC has jumped by as much as 12.5%, reaching 5-day high of $5.18 minutes ago. It is now trading at $5.18. This, despite BTC's largely flat activity during the same period.
During the past 6 months, LTC has almost always followed BTC loyally on the way down but has often done its own thing when BTC rises. Their divergence is observed in the LTC/BTC price, which fell as low as 0.008 after trading near 0.03 earlier this year.
Today, it has jumped back up above 0.01 to 0.0108, the highest level in a week.
LTC/USD has also bucked the trend in reversing out of what appeared to be an inescapable cycle of decline. It adhered strongly to a 30% offset for its 50-day moving average (MA), making the prospect of a return to new lows more likely. With the MA still declining as it plays catch-up with recent losses, today's sharp rise means the gap has quickly narrowed to 20%. While a narrowing is mathematically inevitable at some point during a lengthy decline, this is a big jump.
Possibly contributing the rise was Cheapair adding Litecoin as a payment option. It's certainly not out of the woods by any stretch. LTC will have to undergo a thorough bottoming process clearly defying recent patterns in order to signal a true recovery.
