Litecoin Breaks Another Record: HODLers On Network Now Exceed 5 Million

On-chain data shows Litecoin has reached another milestone as the total number of HODLers on the network now exceeds five million.

Litecoin Long-Term Holders Have Continued To Rise In Number Recently

According to data from the market intelligence platform IntoTheBlock, LTC has seen its long-term holder count hit a new record this week. The firm defines “long-term holders” (LTHs) or HODLers as investors holding onto their coins since at least one year ago. Note that this cutoff for the LTHs differs from what some other analytics platforms use, usually around five to six months.

The chart below shows how the number of addresses owned by these LTH HODLers has changed over the past few years.

Litecoin HODLers

As displayed in the above graph, the Litecoin HODLer count has significantly increased during this period. Since the start of last year, in particular, the indicator has seen exponential growth.

Following this sharp rise, the number of addresses carrying coins since at least one year ago has now broken the five million mark, a new record for the cryptocurrency.

Interestingly, while the LTHs have grown in number during this period, the cryptocurrency price has mostly struggled. This shows that despite the poor price action, there has been growing confidence among a subset of holders who believe that the asset would be a profitable investment in the long term.

This is naturally a positive development for the cryptocurrency, as more LTHs mean more supply that’s locked inside the wallets of these resolute hands, which in turn implies a lesser possibility of selling occurring in the market.

LTC Price Has Continued To Struggle Recently

Since Litecoin finished its plunge in mid-August, its price has only moved sideways. When writing, the cryptocurrency is trading at around $63.

Litecoin Price Chart

While the Litecoin HODLers only going up in number through this slide since July is a constructive sign for the asset, it may not mean much in the short term.

Where the LTC price could go next from here depends on several factors, one of which could be on-chain resistance and support levels. IntoTheBlock has shared the concentration of the investors at the different LTC cost basis price ranges.

Litecoin Profit/Loss

The “cost basis” here refers to the price at which the investors bought their coins. In the above data, the dot for the $64.9 to $69.29 range, for instance, represents the percentage of Litecoin investors who bought at prices lying inside this range.

Generally, when the price surges to cost basis levels with a high amount of investor concentration, there is a chance that the asset could feel some resistance. This is because these investors, previously in losses, come into the green with the surge, which may entice them to sell and exit the market.

The range ahead of the current one looks to be not that concentrated with holders, which may mean that Litecoin wouldn’t find too much resistance if a surge toward the $69 mark has to happen. However, there are notable percentages of holders in the following few price ranges, making a further surge difficult.

Litecoin Long-Term Holders Smartly Exited Before Halving, Data Shows

Data shows that Litecoin long-term holders exited the asset before the halving, while short-term holders were left to panic on the halving day. The “halving” here refers to an event where the block rewards of Litecoin are permanently cut in half.

Litecoin Long-Term Holders Sold During Price Surge Before The Halving

According to data from the market intelligence platform IntoTheBlock, the long-term holders had been well-prepared for the “sell the news” halving event. The “long-term holders” (LTHs) generally include all investors who have been holding onto their coins since at least six months ago.

Related Reading: These Bitcoin Metrics Are At Important Retests, Will Bullish Trend Prevail?

This group includes some of the most resolute investors in the Litecoin market, who don’t easily react to whatever is going in on in the wider sector, as they usually hold through FUD or profit-taking opportunities without participating in any significant selling.

Because of how rare movements from these investors can be, the few times that they do sell can be the ones to watch out for, as they may spell trouble for the market.

A way to gauge whether the LTHs are participating in selling or not is through the “holding time of transacted coins” metric, which tells us about the average amount of time that coins being transferred on the blockchain had been dormant prior to this movement.

When the value of this metric is high, it means that the age of coins being sold on the network is high, which can naturally be a sign that the LTHs are active right now. On the other hand, low values usually indicate that the short-term holders (STHs) are the ones selling currently.

Now, here is a chart that shows the trend in the Litecoin holding time of transacted coins over the past few months:

Litecoin Long-Term Holders

As you can see in the above graph, the Litecoin holding time of transacted coins spiked back in June, when the price of the cryptocurrency had been observing a sharp rally.

During the largest of these spikes, the indicator’s value had exceeded 1 year, implying that some of the most experienced investors in the market had broken their silence.

This rally had occurred as the market had started getting hyped about the halving, which was only a month and a half away at that point.

This event takes place every four years, with the latest one having occurred just earlier this month. Unlike what some may have hoped for, the event didn’t prove to be bullish for LTC, as the aforementioned rally didn’t last for too long and the cryptocurrency only declined in the remaining leadup to the halving, until finally it actually sharply plunged on the day of the event itself.

It would appear that the experienced LTHs had already predicted something like this may happen, so they had taken the wise decision of selling while the opportunity was there.

In the post-halving selloff, the indicator’s value has remained low, implying that it’s only the short-term holders who have been panic selling after they saw that a bullish trend couldn’t return to Litecoin with the event.

LTC Price

At the time of writing, Litecoin is trading around $84, down 8% in the last week.

Litecoin Price Chart