- Litecoin is up 51% this month.
- DTCC website lists one Litecoin ETF.
- Market analysts say Litecoin ETF is most likely to be approved.
Litecoin soared 51% in February, trading at $135 on Friday, and has outperformed major cryptocurrencies.
The rally comes as Litecoin — created in 2011 from Bitcoin’s source code — cleared another hurdle to win approval for a spot exchange-traded fund.
The prices of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and Dogecoin have either dropped or posted only slight gains over the same period, while XRP gained 6% this month.
ETF issuers have applied to launch funds based on the last three cryptos.
The flood of altcoin ETF applications come amid US President Donald Trump’s flurry of executive orders and key appointments designed to relax US crypto laws.
Third base
Litecoin is seen by many market watchers as the most likely altcoin to get ETFs based on it.
“In baseball terms: All of them are rounding the first base, except for Litecoin which is headed to third,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Balchunas said earlier in February.
Balchunas and his colleague James Seyffart previously gave Litecoin a 90% chance of approval.
Polymarket punters put the odds of an approved Litecoin ETF this year at 85%, slightly down from 87% last week.
In the last two weeks, the SEC has publicly acknowledged a raft of altcoin ETF filings including fund applications. Acknowledgement means that the agency is considering the applications.
It sent a signal that the regulator is open to altcoin ETFs after previous applications have been asked to withdraw immediately after filing, Balchunas said.
On Thursday, Canary Capital’s spot Litecoin ETF application passed another hurdle and became the first to be listed on the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation’s website.
While a DTCC listing doesn’t indicate the SEC will approve a pending ETF application, it shows the issuer is making preparations for when that happens Balchunas said.
That’s because the platform serves as a major clearinghouse for the US financial market and settles about $10 trillion in securities transactions daily.
Both Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs appeared on the DTCC’s active and pre-launch ETF list on the eve of their respective SEC approvals.
Commodity
Market observers, including Balchunas, previously cited Litecoin’s likelihood of being deemed a commodity by the SEC as part of the reason for their high approval odds.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission classified Litecoin as a commodity as part of its enforcement action against crypto exchange Kraken last March.
Litecoin similarities to Bitcoin would also give it a more straightforward regulatory path compared to other altcoins, Balchunas said.
That’s because the SEC has already deemed Bitcoin a commodity.
Osato Avan-Nomayo is our Nigeria-based DeFi correspondent. He covers DeFi and tech. Got a tip? please contact him at osato@dlnews.com.
