Litecoin is once again at a critical crossroads, with its long-term structure remaining intact after years of successful defenses. However, the margin for error is thin. As price hovers near key levels, $63 has emerged as the line bulls must protect. A break below it could shift momentum sharply, while holding above keeps the broader bullish structure alive and sets the stage for the next decisive move.

Structure Gives Way, Expansion Phase Begins

Columbus’s latest LTC update highlights that the multi-year compression that previously capped price action has finally resolved, resulting in a clean break of the long-term chart setup. This structural change confirms a shift from a neutral state to a clearly bullish one.

The current price action is described as a pause before expansion rather than the conclusion of the rally. In this phase, Litecoin is holding steady above old resistance levels, allowing the market to load for the next leg of the move, turning previous barriers into new support. Litecoin’s projected path forward is based on the typical behavior of expansion cycles following structural breaks. 

The strategy follows a clear three-step progression: the initial breakout, followed by the current phase of acceptance. Once the market fully accepts these new price levels, the “real move” begins, representing a phase where the most significant gains are expected to materialize.

The 9-Year Trendline That Still Controls Litecoin

Matthew Dixon highlighted the immense historical significance of the Litecoin long-term trend line. This line has acted as an unbreakable floor for nine years, with the price never closing below it. While the market has dipped under this line multiple times in the past, every attempt to break down has ultimately failed, maintaining a remarkably consistent structural defense.

Currently, the market environment is putting this nearly decade-long support to the test once again. Dixon emphasizes that we cannot rely on intra-month volatility to determine the outcome. Instead, the definitive signal rests solely on the monthly candle close. This closing price will serve as a macro-economic pivot point that dictates the primary direction for the coming months.

A successful hold above the trend line would be a powerful bullish confirmation, suggesting the long-term uptrend remains intact despite external pressures. Conversely, a confirmed close below this line would shift the narrative to bearish, marking a historic breakdown of a nine-year support system.

Specific technical triggers are also in play, particularly the $63 level. Dixon warns that falling below $63 would be devastating, as it would effectively nullify the hidden bullish divergence currently supporting the price. Given these risks, Dixon recommends exercising patience until the monthly close or ensuring strict stop losses are in place for any active trades.

A new report from CoinGate shows Bitcoin took back the crown in cryptocurrency payments during 2025. Here’s how the rest of the rankings looked.

Bitcoin Was The Most Used Cryptocurrency On CoinGate In 2025

In a new thread on X, digital asset payments processor CoinGate has shared insights from its latest report about transactions that occurred on the platform in 2025. In total, CoinGate processed 1.42 million cryptocurrency payments during the year, bringing its total lifetime payments beyond 7 million.

As the below pie chart shows, Bitcoin accounted for the largest share of these payments.

Back in 2024, Tether’s USDT ranked the highest in payments on the platform, beating Bitcoin. With a share of 22.10% in 2025, however, the original cryptocurrency managed to reclaim the top spot over the stablecoin, which ended the year with a payments dominance of 16.60%.

The third position was occupied by Litecoin, which was involved in 14.40% of CoinGate payments. In Summer 2025, LTC even briefly became the second-best coin in the metric. Litecoin being preferred over some other popular assets could be due to the fact that its blockchain offers cheap and fast transactions as core features.

Ethereum and Tron, the fifth and sixth most used coins, both observed growth in payments dominance during 2025. “TRX payment share grew from 9.1% to 11.5% and ETH from 8.9% to 10.6%,” noted CoinGate.

In terms of networks, the Bitcoin blockchain, including the Lightning Network, was the most widely used on the platform in 2025, symmetrical with the token’s payments share itself.

As displayed above, the second and third largest networks on CoinGate were Tron and Ethereum, occupying shares of 19.6% and 15.1%, respectively. These blockchains being above Litecoin despite their native tokens accounting for lower payment shares is because they also facilitate stablecoin transactions.

The United States led in country rankings on the platform, with 24.37% of payments on the platform taking place in the nation. Germany and Netherlands rounded out the top three with shares of 6.83% and 5.16%, respectively.

Cryptocurrencies saw significant usage on the platform in terms of being a payment mode, but that’s not all they were used for. According to the report, merchants also increasingly chose to settle in digital assets.

More specifically, cryptocurrency settlements rose from 27% in 2024 to 37.5% in 2025. Stablecoins were the preferred option for merchants, being involved in 25.2% of all settlements, while Bitcoin occupied a smaller, but still notable, 9.7% share.

Merchants also used cryptocurrencies to pay vendors, affiliates, partners, and contractors. “The most popular payouts were in USDC, Bitcoin, and Ethereum,” said CoinGate. Stablecoins once again dominated here, occupying a payouts share of 87.8%.

BTC Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $88,300, down more than 9% over the last week.

The Litecoin price has seen its fair share of volatility and corrections over the past few weeks. Despite the downtrend, a crypto analyst has forecasted that LTC could be laying the groundwork for another explosive rally. He has shared a detailed technical analysis and price chart explaining why he believes Litecoin could eventually flip into a bullish position. 

Litecoin may be positioning itself for another powerful rally, as its market structure remains broadly intact. According to a recent analysis from market expert The Penguin (@ThePenguinXBT), LTC’s structure continues to point toward much higher price levels, with recent volatility and declines doing little to change the overall macro outlook. 

Litecoin Price Gets Ready For Explosive Rally

Sharing a 4-hour price chart, The Penguin gave a detailed breakdown of why he believes Litecoin is preparing for another price surge. He explained that LTC has now swept the October 10 wick, a key technical move that could signal the end of downside liquidity grabs. At the same time, the chart shows a completed five-wave move lower into what appears to be the final leg of Litecoin’s correction. 

Related Reading: Why The Litecoin Price Could Stage A 33% Rally To $110

The Penguin noted that LTC’s price had earlier stabilized within a clear horizontal range, then briefly dipped below it and quickly reclaimed that level. This rebound took place near the lower support zone around $70, where a sharp sell-off was met with strong buying pressure. As a result, price action formed a rounded recovery from the recent low, which the analyst identified as Litecoin’s final corrective wave. 

According to The Penguin, the internal structure of Litecoin’s recent move suggests two things: the final correction has been completed, or there might be one last marginal low for LTC. Either way, he emphasized that the broader setup remains strongly bullish.

The Penguin has projected that once Litecoin begins its next impulsive move, it could become difficult for the price to be pushed back into previous trading ranges. From the rounded recovery line, the chart points toward a potential move to $82. The analyst has also highlighted an upper blue resistance line above $86 as an additional upside target. If the chart setup plays out as expected, Litecoin could see its price skyrocket by more than 17% from current levels around $70.   

Analyst Sets Ambitious $1,600 Price Target For LTC

In a more recent analysis, The Penguin shared a new chart suggesting that Litecoin could be gearing up for a dramatic price rally. The chart highlights a key descending triangle pattern, traditionally known as a bearish continuation signal, especially when it forms after a downtrend. 

According to the analyst, Litecoin is attempting to break out of a multi-year descending triangle on its weekly chart, signaling the potential end of its consolidation and the start of a new bullish phase. Once this happens, The Penguin predicts that the cryptocurrency could embark on a sharp vertical rally toward $1,600. 

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.

Law enforcement in Russia has blocked major sites on the dark web, including a carding market leader. The platforms have been seized amid ongoing investigations into hacking groups, with Russian authorities ramping up efforts to dismantle the cybercrime rings and detain their members.

Interior Ministry of Russia Hits Stolen Credit Cards Market

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (MVD) has brought down four prominent websites operating on the dark web, blockchain forensics firm Elliptic has revealed. The sites have been blocked by Directorate “K”, MVD’s unit combatting computer-related crime.

The seized platforms are the Sky-Fraud forum, Trump’s Dumps, UAS Store, and Ferum Shop, which became the leading market for stolen credit cards after the largest marketplace in the niche, Unicc, was taken offline in January, the report details.

According to Elliptic’s estimate, the sites have collectively made more than $263 million in crypto sales denominated in bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), and litecoin (LTC) before they were shut down. Ferum accounts for the bulk of that amount with $256 million in bitcoin generated, or 17% of the carding market.

Trump’s Dumps, another website distributing compromised card data, has allegedly made around $4.1 million since its launch in 2017. Both sites were advertised on the on Sky-Fraud forum, where carding techniques and money laundering tips were among the main topics. Directorate “K” has apparently left a message in its source code, reading: “Which one of you is next?”

[#Russia] SKY-FRAUD & FERUM, famous Russian #carding forums closed by Russian authorities.

Authorities left an easter egg on the code source saying “WHICH ONE OF YOU IS NEXT?”#cybercrime #takedown #infosec #banking pic.twitter.com/RbNTkWPHIc

— Soufiane Tahiri (@S0ufi4n3) February 7, 2022

The fourth blocked website, UAS Store, was a platform offering stolen remote desktop protocol credentials that cybercriminals use to gain access to victims’ accounts from other devices. These breaches have increased during the Covid-19 pandemic as more employees are now working from home. Since late 2017, UAS Store has made around $3 million in cryptocurrency.

Elliptic notes that the latest seizures have been executed after the previous top carding marketplace, Unicc, and its affiliate proxy market Luxsocks, became inaccessible in mid-January. The seizures also came after the subsequent arrest of Unicc’s suspected administrator by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). Researchers claim the crypto proceeds of the two platforms reached $372 million.

Meanwhile, the MVD has sought through a Moscow court the arrest of six unidentified hackers accused of “illegal circulation of means of payment.” Whether the group is linked to the closed-down dark web sites is not clear yet. Last month, FSB and MVD busted the notorious Revil ransomware group on a U.S. request, detaining 14 of its suspected members.

Do you think Russia will continue to crack down on dark web platforms and hacking groups? Tell us in the comments section below.