Litecoin Whale Activity Spikes To 5-Week High: Reversal Or Continuation Signal?

[Ben Graham]

Litecoin has gone through a price drawdown over the past week, but on-chain data shows whale activity has shot up to the highest level in weeks.

Litecoin Whale Transaction Count Has Spiked Recently

According to data from on-chain analytics firm Santiment, the Litecoin Whale Transaction Count has witnessed a surge recently. This indicator measures the total number of transfers occurring on the LTC network that involve a value of more than $100,000. Generally, only the whales are capable of moving amounts this large with single transactions, so the metric’s value is considered to represent the activity of the big-money investors.

When the value of the Whale Transaction Count rises, it means the whales are participating in a higher amount of transfer activity on the blockchain. Such a trend may be a sign that the asset is attracting attention from the large traders. On the other hand, the indicator going down implies the humongous entities may be losing interest in the cryptocurrency as they are reducing their transaction activity.

Now, here is the chart shared by Santiment that shows the trend in the Litecoin Whale Transaction Count over the last couple of months:

As is visible in the above graph, the Litecoin Whale Transaction Count has seen a spike alongside the latest decline in the asset’s price, indicating the volatility has induced activity from the large hands.

At the peak of this spike, the metric hit a value of 503, corresponding to the highest number of whale-sized moves since December 10th. As for what the surge in the indicator could mean for LTC, the answer is hard to tell, since the Whale Transaction Count includes only data for the absolute number of moves being made by the whales and nothing related to whether buying or selling is more dominant.

Past data could provide some hints about what usually tends to follow whale activity spikes, however. “Historically, an asset has a significantly higher likelihood of reversal on whale spikes,” explained the analytics firm. This trend was visible during the two Whale Transaction Highs from last month, occurring on December 3rd and 10th. Both of these coincided with price tops for Litecoin.

It now remains to be seen whether the latest spike in the indicator will turn out to be a sign of another selloff or if it will lead to a bottom instead.

LTC Price

Litecoin shot up to a high of $84 last week, but bullish momentum fizzled out and its price opened this week with a plunge toward the $75 level. The past day has seen some upward action, though, as LTC has returned to $78.