Decentral Block Post

Litecoin (LTC) has rebounded by 130% to almost $100 after bottoming out near $40.50 in June 2022. The primary reasons include broadly improving risk-on sentiment and euphoria around Litecoin’s upcoming halving in August 2023.

However, technicals suggest that LTC may wipe out most of these gains in the coming months.

LTC price paints giant bear flag 

Litecoin stands to pare its gains mainly due to a giant bear flag on the weekly chart.

A “bear flag” is a bearish continuation pattern that occurs when the price consolidates inside an ascending, parallel channel after undergoing a strong downtrend. It resolves after the price breaks below its lower trendline with a rise in trading volumes.

Litecoin has been painting a similar pattern since early June 2022. Previously, the LTC/USD pair had undergone a 70% price correction from $130 to $40.50. Thus, from the technical perspective, it would resume its downtrend course if its price breaks below the lower trendline.

Market analysts rely on many technical indicators to anticipate future trends, one of which is the very-popular ascending triangle chart pattern.

What is an ascending triangle pattern?

As the name indicates, an ascending triangle on a chart forms when the price consolidates between a rising trendline support and a horizontal trendline resistance.

The pattern typically appears during persistent uptrends or downtrends. Most technical analysts see it as a “continuation pattern,” meaning the general market trend is likely to resume.

For example, the Bitcoin (BTC) price chart above shows the BTC/USD trading pair forming an ascending triangle pattern between April 2020 and July 2020.

The BTC price breaks out of the triangle range in late July to the upside. It returns to retest the pattern’s resistance trendline as support in September for further bullish confirmation, resuming its uptrend.

Despite the plans to turn the region into a bustling crypto hub, the United Kingdom’s financial watchdog says it has given the all-clear to only41 out of 300 crypto firm applications seeking regulatory approval to date.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) implemented the new cryptocurrency-focused regulations on Jan. 10, 2020, to supervise businesses operating in the sector and to ensure that they’re subject to the same anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CTF) regulations as firms in traditional financial markets.

A statement from the FCA has revealed that of the 265 applications that were "determined" a mere 15% of these applications were approved and registered, 74% of firms either refused or withdrew their application, while 11% were rejected. Another 35 applications are yet to be determined.

While the FCA didn’t expressly state the cause of d the rejected or withdrawn applications, it did provide feedback on “good and poor quality” applications.

Among the more complete applications included a detailed description of the firm’s business model, the roles and responsibilities of business partners and service providers, sources of liquidity, flow-of-funds charts, and an outline of the policies and systems set in place to manage risk, the report stated.