Crypto market update: Ethereum gains momentum as Litecoin drops

Ethereum (ETH) has been increasing in price during the course of the week – mirroring ETH’s trading pattern over the past week.

Trade volume for Ethereum reached as high as $3.5 billion on Wednesday, and has been high above the yearly average ever since the market crash on December 14th – a date which marked a 19-month low for ETH, as well as many other altcoins.

Looking at this chart, I can already see ETH’s price entering a more bullish period, as it has crossed the 20-day EMA and has been able to hold. Over the course of yesterday, ETH’s price climbed as high as $125 according to CoinMarketCap’s aggregate numbers.

ETH price momentum

By Wednesday evening, the rally had turned out to be a brief one, and ETH is priced back down at $120 at the time of writing. The spread between the top-20 trading venues is thin – all show a price markup of $122.

Surprisingly, the highest concentration of trades came from DOBI Exchange – a platform which has processed close to half a billion worth of transactions in the past day. Its ETH/BTC pair accounts for $200 million of that sum – a huge number from a somewhat unknown Chinese exchange which doesn’t look too welcoming to Western users.

Something seems to be building with ETH at the moment – the coin price has pushed up in waves over the last seven days, before falling and rising again. An increase in trade volume has accompanied each surge and has risen above the $3 billion mark every time.

When ETH dropped to the $80 range in December, the average daily volume suddenly increased to the $3 billion range. The same happened on February 6th, when the coin price hit $103 – a near two-month low – and technical analysis suggests there is demand at this price range.

If ETH maintains the 20-day EMA as a support level and is able to make a move towards the 50-day EMA, that could mean a really bullish couple of sessions.

LTC price momentum

On the other hand, Litecoin (LTC), a coin that had been absolutely crushing it over the past week, seems now to be dropping in value again as its performance against BTC and USD starts to decline. At the time of writing, LTC has dropped from over $46 to $40, which represents a 15% drop in price.

Litecoin has now cleared the overbought short-term momentum readings thanks to the volatile consolidation, but today, it violated its recent swing low. That said, the breakout remains intact, although the long-term setup is still negative.

Litecoin is currently holding between the 20 and 50-day EMA, meaning although the momentum looks dark, as long as LTC holds the resistance level above the 50-day EMA, we can expect another mini rally to occur.

Above the $38 price level, the immediate outlook is still bullish, but given the market-wide trends, traders should continue to be cautious with new positions. The next key resistance level above the recent swing high is ahead near $51, with further support found between $30 and $34.