Litecoin Surges 4.3% as Open Interest Climbs to $420M
Litecoin (LTC)
Editor:
Eugene Serbin
Cryptotimes.io reported that Litecoin (LTC) climbed 4.3% over 24 hours to trade at $56.00 on Friday, September 18, 2026. The price advance occurred alongside a rise in open interest across major derivatives platforms, with total open interest reaching 7.49 million LTC valued at $420.89 million. Binance held the largest share of this open interest at 1.56 million LTC, representing a 9.35% increase over the day.
Bybit followed with 1.29 million LTC, while OKX, KuCoin, and Gate held smaller positions. The asset’s 24-hour trading range spanned from $53.37 to $56.11, with a market capitalization of $4.347 billion. Technical indicators on the daily timeframe showed a Strong Buy summary, with moving averages registering 14 buy signals against one neutral.
SwissBorg announced on September 14 that it added support for Litecoin, allowing users to swap the token against 12 fiat currencies or over 400 other assets. Additionally, Litecoin Core v0.21.5.6 was released on August 4, strengthening MimbleWimble Extension Block validation for miners and exchanges.
How the market reacted
Whalio's own Binance spot order flow for LTC, measured when this story was written up on 18 September 2026. Not the outlet's figures.
Whalio spot data shows Litecoin trading at $53.95 with a 24-hour buy ratio of 51.7%, indicating net buying pressure over the full day. However, shorter timeframes show fading momentum, with the 1-hour and 4-hour buy ratios dropping to 48.1% and 47.7% respectively. The 24-hour volume delta is positive at $472,430, driven by a cumulative buying pressure that accumulated over 10 of the last 24 hours. In contrast, the 1-hour volume delta is negative at -$57,157, suggesting immediate selling pressure is currently outweighing buying. The 4-hour volume delta also sits in the red at -$283,733, reinforcing that recent intraday activity has been net seller-heavy. This divergence suggests that while the day ended with net buying, the most recent hour has seen traders taking profits or exiting positions.
The latest daily buy ratio of 56.7% sits at the 99th percentile of the last 324 days, against a median of 49.4% - among the strongest buying days it has had.
Was that an ordinary day?
The same Binance spot measurements for LTC, averaged over the days leading up to the story.
Over the preceding week, Litecoin experienced only one day of net buying out of seven, indicating a generally weak trend. The 7-day average buy ratio stood at 47.6%, which is lower than the 51.7% recorded in the latest 24-hour period. Volume over the week was 0.92x the average, showing that trading activity was below typical levels. The price change over eight days was +3.5%, with a total volume delta of -$4,558,973 for the period. This recent 24-hour performance represents an unusual spike in buying pressure compared to the subdued weekly average.