Litecoin (LTC) Price Action Remained Subdued Over the Weekend, Mirroring Bitcoin (BTC)

Litecoin (LTC), a popular proof-of-work coin, was stuck at $103.03, down by 30% from its highest level in 2024.

Litecoin (LTC) price remained largely unchanged during the weekend as it hovered around $103. This price point marked a 30% decline from LTC’s highest price in 2024. The broader cryptocurrency market also experienced a downturn, with most cryptocurrencies shedding some of the gains made last year.

Litecoin's performance was also impacted by the decreasing likelihood of the Securities and Exchange Commission approving a spot LTC ETF in 2025. According to Polymarket, these odds dropped to 42% from this year's high of 60%.

Earlier this year, Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, shared his thoughts on the SEC's potential approval of a spot LTC ETF. In a December post, he stated that the agency would likely approve a Litecoin fund easily as it is a hard fork of Bitcoin (BTC).

“We expect a wave of cryptocurrency ETFs next year, albeit not all at once. First out is likely the btc + eth combo ETFs, then prob Litecoin (bc its fork of btc = commodity), then HBAR (bc not labeled security) and then XRP/Solana (which have been labeled securities in pending…“

Canary Capital was the sole company to apply for a spot Litecoin ETF. Another possibility is that Grayscale might file to convert its Litecoin Trust, which has over $215 million in assets, into a spot ETF, as it did with Bitcoin and Ethereum.

While a spot Litecoin ETF would be beneficial for the coin, it is uncertain whether it will pique the interest of institutional investors. The performance of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs serves as a good illustration of this. Bitcoin funds have over $107 billion in assets, which equates to 5.7% of the total market capitalization. With just $11.6 billion in assets and a market valuation of 2.96%, Ethereum funds show an低い institutional demand.

Given that Litecoin is a smaller crypto project with a market cap of $7.7 billion and has dropped from being a top ten coin to being ranked 22 in the crypto industry, interest in LTC would be lower.