Litecoin Price Falters Amid Doubts Over LTC ETF Approval

When the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the 11 initial applications for spot ETFs last January 2024, it signaled a favorable environment for Bitcoin. The top digital asset’s price surged thanks to increasing institutional attention. So, it isn’t surprising that other top crypto projects follow suit, with Litecoin (LTC), a proof-of-work coin, on the deciding table.

However, Litecoin is having a rough start to the year. It’s currently trading at $94.89, down 22% in the last 30 days. Litecoin’s price performance this week aligns with other altcoins, which surrendered some of their gains last year.

Also, crypto analysts attribute Litecoin’s slide to the diminishing odds that spot LTC ETFs will be approved in 2025. According to Polymarket’s tracking, the odds of approving the spot LTC ETFs this year dipped to 24% as of January 13th.

For months, the crypto industry and betting markets have been projecting the odds of finally having these spot Litecoin ETFs. On December 19th, the Polymarket odds put the chances at 75% before starting to dip as the year closed. The odds were close to 50% at the start of the year, but this soon began to taper, and it’s now at 24%.

However, some crypto analysts are optimistic that these ETFs will be approved soon. Eric Balchunas, a Bloomberg analyst, shared his optimism in a post. He explained that the SEC would approve these funds since they are a fork of Bitcoin.

According to Bloomberg’s Balchunas, the market is ready to welcome the approval of new spot ETFs for different coins. In his Twitter/X post shared on December 18th, he said that the Bitcoin and Ether ETF combo may be approved, and there’s a probability that Litecoin’s ETFs may be next. He argued that since Litecoin is Bitcoin’s fork, it will be easier for proponents to gain approval.

In addition to Litecoin, Balchunas also predicted that HBAR may be next since it’s not identified as a security, followed by XRP/Solana. However, XRP has the lowest odds of being approved since it has a pending lawsuit over its securities labelling.

Canary Capital was the only company to file an application for Litecoin’s ETF. Analysts also expect Grayscale to follow suit if it decides to convert its Litecoin Trust, which boasts over $215 million in assets.

Some experts say that the spot ETFs for Litecoin may have an uncertain future even if it gains SEC approval. Some say that it’s questionable whether institutional investors will pick these investments. Even Bitcoin and Ether’s spot ETF performances are relatively weak. For example, Bitcoin funds are backed by $107 billion in assets, representing just 5.7% of the total coin’s market cap.

Ethereum, on the other hand, boasts $11.6 billion, just 2.96% of the total asset’s market cap. Since Litecoin is a smaller cryptocurrency project, many analysts don’t expect much from the spot LTC ETFs.

Featured image from Pexels, chart from TradingView