Litecoin dropped below $180 once more, a level of significant importance from earlier in the month. Since Bitcoin has room to go lower, the altcoin market is likely to slip alongside it. Finally, NEM and IOTA dropped under former levels of support as selling pressure rose on the charts.
Litecoin [LTC]
Source: LTC/USD on TradingView
Litecoin was unable to stay above $192, with the cryptocurrency slipping back under the $180-mark that LTC bulls labored throughout January to break above.
The next levels of importance were $163, $149, $135, and $123 as supports. A move that far south didn’t seem to be on the cards, but a test of the $149-level was a real possibility.
The RSI sank below 50 to indicate that bearish momentum was on the rise. A bounce near $163 can push the crypto to the $170-$175 region, before coming under further selling pressure.
NEM [XEM]
Source: XEM/USD on TradingView
The highlighted region at $0.5 represented a strong region of demand for XEM over the past week, with the bulls valiantly defending it. However, the losses over the past few hours were too much and the bulls were forced to withdraw.
The Directional Movement Index showed a strong bearish trend in progress, while the Chaikin Money Flow was moving under -0.05 to show net capital flow out of the market, a sign of sellers’ strength.
The next area of importance was the $0.42-$0.44 region as possible support.
IOTA
Source: IOTA/USD on TradingView
The drop from $1.55 to $1.07 at press time represented a drop of 34% for IOTA within a week. This followed BTC shedding value, with the rest of the altcoin market dropping too.
Important levels of support for IOTA lay at $0.97 and $0.79, while the $1.08-level saw strong momentum behind a bearish candle breakthrough to the downside.
The momentum seemed to be strongly in favor of the bears and the MACD showed the same, moving under the zero-line. Trading volume on any bounces can be expected to be light. Over the next few hours, a bearish retest of the $1.08-level can be used to enter a short position.
