Litecoin Price Analysis: LTC struggles to stay above $40.00

• LTC/USD stays above $40.00 amid directionless trading.
• A recovery above $45.00 is needed to improve the technical picture.

Litecoin (LTC) hit the intraday high at $41.05 and retreated to $40.60 by press time; LTC/USD has lost over 4.5% since this time on Monday, moving in sync with the market. Litecoin is the 7th largest digital asset with the current market value of $2.6 billion and an average daily trading volume of $4.5 billion.

LTC/USD: On-chain data

According to the statistic provided by Intotheblock, over 14% of LTC addresses are in the money at the current price with a cluster of 157k addresses with 2.48 million LTC waiting for the price to move towards $45.00, which will bring them to the break-even point. This area may serve as a resistance zone on the way to the next barrier $50.00. 

LTC/USD: Technical picture

On the intraday charts, LTC/USD recovered from Monday’s low od $39.53 and managed to settle above psychological $40.00; however, the price stays under 4-hour SMA200 at $40.89, which is a critical local barrier on the way to the intraday high of $41.0 and 4-hour SMA50 at $41.70. A sustainable move above this barrier will allow for an extended upside recovery towards daily SMA50 at $42.75 and $45.00. 

LTC/USD 1-hour chart

On the downside, the initial support is created by $40.00, followed by the recent low $39.53. Once it is broken, the sell-off may be extended towards  the lower line of the daily Bollinger Band at $38.14. This area is likely to slow down the bulls and push the coin into a range-bound trading mode. 

LTC/USD daily chart