Litecoin lights up; BCH hard fork, dull

Refusing to concede its crypto relevance, Litecoin kicked off the week with a 7.6% rise over the 24 hours ending 8 a.m. (EST) Monday. Over the past seven days, LTC is up 10.5%, trading, give or take a nickel, at $67.40.

Excitement in the community is building over the prospect of LTC forming a “Velvet Fork” partnership with Cardano (ADA). That smart contract platform's creator, Charles Hoskinson, has floated the notion of ADA and LTC possibly collaborating on cross-chain communications between the two cryptos. Meanwhile, Grayscale Investments has grown its Litecoin Trust holdings by 1,900% to roughly $40 million since July (Coinfomania).

Over the past 30 days, as Bitcoin ransacked all available oxygen tanks at the base camp, LTC marched up to the summit in lockstep, up 42% over the past month, compared to a 44% climb for BTC.

Just prior to its looming hard fork, Bitcoin Cash modestly fell from $255 to below $240. But the blockchain break-up played out as expected on Sunday – with Bitcoin Cash Node becoming the dominant software of BCH, just as 80% of miners indicated that it would be. And Bitcoin Cash ABC diverged into the yellow wood likely never to be heard from again, having no hashpower.

Not since "Y2K" have concerns about computational infrastructure gotten so blown out of proportion. Stoking controversy was none other than Roger "Bitcoin Jesus" Ver (now a BCH prophet) who forewarned of potential disruptions – and while there was some better-safe-than-sorry selling yesterday, with a tense, short-lived 7.5% downdraft, ultimately, nothing remotely resembling calamity followed what turned out to be a scheduled protocol upgrade. As of early Monday, BCH was $249, up 2% over 24 hours.

As Bitcoin settles into a sweet $16K handle, some big BTC holders appear to be hedging their bets.

Whale watchers on Friday spotted what appeared to be a massive short position, placed on Bybit, worth $100 million. The trade went down in successive blocks with the majority marked as opening positions, suggesting a short position rather than a liquidation (Coin Insider).

Some analysts see the waning momentum of BTC's price surge as an exhilarated market merely catching its breath.

Rest up, Big Poppa. Because analysts also are forecasting monstrous movement. Writing in a report titled, “Bitcoin: 21st Century Gold,” Citibank's Tom Fitzpatrick said it is conceivable BTC hits $300,000 by the end of the next year.

As expected, major crypto exchanges are supporting Bitcoin Cash Node which now assumes the BCH ticker.

Prior to the Bitcoin Cash blockchain split, between two protocols, Bitcoin Cash Node and Bitcoin Cash ABC, Kraken came out with a statement – that in its view, the miners had spoken – essentially burying the latter. 

"Less than 1% of blocks are signaling for Bitcoin Cash ABC, so Bitcoin Cash Node looks like it will be the dominant chain by far,” Kraken said.

Coinbase and Binance also indicated ahead of time that they were supporting the dominant chain.