Bitcoin Struggles for Price Gains As Litecoin Hits 13-Month high

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• Bitcoin’s price consolidation in a tight range continues for the eighth day, as litecoin rallies to its highest level since May 2018.
• BTC’s 4-hour chart shows $8,053 is the level to beat for the bulls. A high-volume break higher could be followed by a rise to $8,500.
• LTC looks set to extend its recent rally as per the 3-day chart.
• LTC already rallied more than 100 percent in the last six weeks, so a pullback to $120 could be seen before further gains.

Bitcoin (BTC) is lacking a clear directional bias for the eighth consecutive day amid a continued rally in litecoin’s (LTC) price.

The price of a single bitcoin – the world’s leading cryptocurrency market value – has been restricted to a $600 range since June 5. While any drops to $7,500 have been consistently short-lived, buyers have also repeatedly failed to engineer a convincing break above $8,100.

As of writing, BTC is changing hands at $8,000 on Bitstamp, representing a 0.5-percent gain on a 24-hour basis.

With BTC so indecisive, major alternative cryptocurrencies like ethereum’s ether token, XRP, bitcoin cash and EOS are also struggling for clear direction.

Litecoin, however, is flashing 6.5 percent gains on a 24-hour basis, according to CoinMarketCap. The fourth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization rose to $141 on Bitstamp earlier today, the highest level since May 2018.

More notably, at the current price of $136, LTC is up nearly 40 percent from lows below $100 seen just seven days ago. Meanwhile, BTC is up 4 percent on a weekly basis.

With the mining reward halving due on Aug. 8 – a process that could lead to a supply deficit and a resultant upwards pressure on prices – LTC is again leading BTC higher.

BTC 4-hour chart

As seen above, BTC has created a sideways channel inside a falling channel, so a break above $8,063 would confirm two channel breakouts and open the doors to $8,500.

It is worth noting that the breakout could be short-lived if trading volumes continue to remain low.

On the downside, the higher low of $7,713 is the immediate support. A violation there would expose the lower edge of the sideways channel, currently at $7,500.

LTC 3-day chart

Litecoin’s relative strength index is reporting a symmetrical triangle breakout – a bullish continuation pattern.

The 5- and 10-candle averages continue to trend north, indicating a bullish setup.

Further, LTC has consistently seen higher volumes on days of positive price action compared to days of negative price action. Therefore, the path of least resistance looks to be to the higher side.

That said, a pullback to the 5-candle MA support, currently located at $122, could be seen before further gains, as the cryptocurrency has rallied 118 percent in the last 6 weeks and the bulls often take a breather following such stellar rallies.

Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing.

Bitcoin and litecoin image via CoinDesk archives; charts by Trading View