Litecoin [LTC]: Post MimbleWimble upgrade, will there be ‘lite’ at the end of the tunnel

Following years of development and an initial announcement made in February this year, Litecoin, on 3 May announced that its major update MimbleWimble (MWEB) has been locked in for activation. Lead developer, David Burkett confirmed that the process of update will be completed over the course of 2 weeks.

The MimbleWimble upgrade is expected to enhance the user experience by providing users the option to make confidential transactions on the Litecoin Network.

After recording a total depreciation of 22% over the past month and over 70% in a year, how did the LTC coin react to the news of this upgrade?

No significant Reaction

Standing at $94 at the time of press, the news MimbleWimble of the upgrade appeared not to have had any significant impact on the price of the LTC coin. Following a high of $106 recorded on 5 May, a retracement occurred pushing the coin back to the $100 region it maintained before the announcement. In the last 24 hours, the coin declined by 2%.

The lack of enthusiasm of investors was also gleaned from the position of the RSI. Since the announcement, the RSI maintained a position below the 50 neutral region and continued to inch closer to the oversold position. Despite the news of the upgrade, it appeared that investors are exiting their positions to take profit.

Price movements also pointed at a bullish bias with the 50 EMA above price since the beginning of the month and remained there despite the news of the upgrade.

Source: TradingView

Worthy of Note

Even though no significant traction was made on the price front for the coin, on-chain analysis of a few metrics revealed that the LTC coin recorded some growth. Following the news of the upgrade, the trading volume of the coin rallied up by 41% 24 hours after the announcement. This is an indication of increased trading following the announcement albeit with little or no impact on price.

Source: Santiment

Similarly, standing at 1.93 at the time of press, the news of the upgrade pushed the Development Activity to take on an uptrend.

Source: Santiment

But Still…

In a social context, the news of the upgrade bestowed no “popularity” upon the LTC token. Standing at 0.325% at the time of writing, the Social Dominance strangely took on a downtrend following the announcement of the upgrade. Similarly, the Social Volume also declined steadily following the announcement of the upgrade.

Source: Santiment

Even the whales were not impressed with the news of the upgrade. For whale transactions greater than $100k, no immediate spike was noted following the news. However, on May 6, a 51% increment in whale activity was spotted.

Similarly, the count for whale transactions greater than $1m, saw no traction following the news of the upgrade. Strangely, standing at 74 at the time of press with no corresponding bullish movements on the price charts, it appeared the whales are heavily distributing.

Source: Santiment