Litecoin Slides as ETF Optimism Battles Wider Market Slowdown

LTC$74.33 has traded sideways over the last 24-hours, after coming down from a two-week high above the $88 mark. The token has been bouncing between $85 and $87 in today’s trading session, underlining a tug-of-war between dip-buyers and sellers who treat $87 as a ceiling.

Charts hint at a looming “golden cross,” the moment a 50-day moving average climbs above the 200-day line, according to CoinDesk Research's technical analysis data model.

The pattern often precedes multi-week rallies, yet momentum remains weak until bulls punch through $87. The wider crypto market, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index, dropped just 0.25% over the last 24 hours.

Future prospects tell a bright story. Bloomberg analysts on Monday raised the chance that the Securities and Exchange Commission will green-light spot exchange-traded funds for XRP, solana and litecoin to 95% by year-end.On Polymarket, the odds stand at 86%.

Approval would give mainstream investors a simple way to own LTC through brokerage accounts, potentially broadening demand.

Technical Analysis Overview

Over the past 24 hours, Litecoin’s price swung through a $2.09 range, equal to a 2.46% move, as traders tested both support and resistance levels. Sellers stepped in forcefully around $86.65 to $87.10, a zone confirmed by a surge of high-volume selling.

Yet buyers have repeatedly defended the area between $85.02 and $85.23, which acted as a floor during midday trading on July 1.

While the broader 24-hour chart sketches a bearish tone, marked by lower highs that trace a descending trendline, shorter time frames hint at brewing optimism.

Litecoin earlier began to recover, climbing modestly from $85.22 to $85.59, a 0.43% increase. The rally gained traction during a brief window, when buying volume spiked past 5,500 tokens per minute, helping LTC break above a minor resistance at $85.50.

Another pocket of support surfaced between $85.03 and $85.18 during the same hour.

Combined with a short-term ascending channel showing higher lows, the pattern suggests that despite bigger-picture caution, LTC could be staging an attempt at upward momentum.