Bitcoin Spin-Off Litecoin, 'Ethereum Killer' Avalanche Weather Crypto Meltdown, Here's Why LTC, AVAX Are Spiking

Litecoin and Avalanche both traded in the green Wednesday, defying the blood-soaked charts of other established coins.

What happened: LTC rose 2.85% in the last 24 hours, while its trading volume zoomed 34% to $1.94 billion. 

The coin, created from the hard fork of Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), surged to an intraday high of $128.14 earlier in the day before retracing to $122.

While there was no specific trigger for the rally,  traders may be pricing in a high probability of a Litecoin spot exchange-traded fund approval this year. In the last few weeks, the SEC has acknowledged spot ETF filings by Grayscale, Canary Capital, and CoinShares 

Additionally, AVAX lifted 1.05% on the launch of its Visa credit card, which allows users to buy products directly with their cryptocurrency without having to convert it to fiat.

Avalanche, like Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), is a smart contract-based network, enabling the development of decentralized applications on top of it.

See Also: GameStop-Themed Cryptos Soar After Vivek Ramaswamy Co-Founded Firm’s CEO Urges Bitcoin Investment: Graduate From Being ‘Meme Stock’ To Sector Leader

The gains contrasted with the broader market meltdown, with the total capitalization shrinking by 4.35% in the last 24 hours.

The slump was exacerbated by Bitcoin's drop below $83,000, its lowest in 15 weeks. Large-cap cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) fell 6.74% and 3.15%, respectively.

Photo by Igor Faun on Shutterstock

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