Litecoin Price Analysis: LTC/USD may retreat to $45.00 before the recovery resumes

Litecoin topped at $50.96 on April 30 and slipped back below $50.00 as the upside momentum faded away during the weekend. At the time of writing, LTC/USD is changing hands at $45.83, down over 5% in the recent 24 hours. Litecoin now takes seventh place in the global cryptocurrency market rating with the market capitalization $3 billion and an average daily trading volume of $4.4 billion.

LTC/US: Technical picture

From the technical point of view, LTC/USD short-term recovery is capped by 1-hour SMA200 at $46.50. Once it is out of the way, the upside is likely to gain traction with the next focus on resistance area $47.60-$48.00 guarded by a combination of 1-hour SMA50 and SMA100. These MAs stopped the upside on Sunday and confirmed their status as a strong resistance. If the bulls manage to clear this area, LTC/USD may quickly recover to psychological $50.00.

On the downside, the initial support is created by the lower line of the 1-hour Bollinger Band at $45.50 followed by the intraday low of $45.26. A sustainable move below this area will attract new sellers to the market and push the price towards 4-hour SMA100 at $44.60. Considering the downward-looking RSI on intraday charts, the short-term bearish scenario looks likely at this stage. 

According to Intotheblock statistics, 21% of LTC holders are in the money now; a cluster of about 50k addresses with breakeven price in the range of $45.90 -$47.30 may slow down the recovery. 

LTC/USD 1-hour chart