CoinDesk reports:
Mt. Gox has begun reimbursing creditors for losses incurred during its 2014 collapse. As of press time, Ethereum hit an intraday low of $2825, appearing set for a fourth consecutive day of red candles.
Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, fell to its lowest level since February earlier today, reacting to news regarding wallet activity associated with Mt. Gox. Indeed, the scale of this collapse is such that BTC dropped below $55,000 on price charts, marking a weekly decline of over 9%.
However, Ethereum is not alone in leading losses. It recorded even more significant losses, dropping below $3000 and touching an intraday low of $2820.
Whale activity also contributed to losses. Ethereum’s freefall appears exacerbated by whales selling large quantities of ETH to repay debts incurred from their underwater bets.
In fact, on-chain data resource LookOnChain revealed that the drop in ETH prices posed liquidation risks for Ethereum whales seeking to obtain ETH through Aave and Compound. For instance, the tool tracked an address on X that sold 26,600 ETH to repay debts on Aave.
Asset liquidation unsurprisingly led to a market washout on Friday, with nearly $650 million worth of cryptocurrencies liquidated in just 24 hours, including $537 million in long positions.
Within the preceding 24 hours before press time, long positions in ETH worth over $130 million were also forcibly liquidated.
Simultaneously, open interest (OI) in ETH futures contracts on top exchanges dropped by nearly 12% during the same period, indicating capital exiting the market.
Lastly, CME OI for Ethereum fell by 7.59%, confirming investor pessimism.
ETH/USDT Technical Analysis:
The decline in ETH/USDT has persisted for a fourth day, placing pressure on the currency pair. During the recent crash peak, the pair breached crucial support levels for the same reasons. ETH’s price fell below the 50, 100, and 200 simple moving averages on the daily chart.
The last time ETH/USDT breached all three daily trend lines was in August 2023, amid losses in the cryptocurrency market due to reports of Elon Musk’s SpaceX selling its Bitcoin holdings.
According to CoinMarketCap data, the last reported price for ETH was $2920, marking a 40% decline from its all-time high. Ethereum’s lackluster performance this week underscores short-term pessimistic prospects.
ETH/USDT is likely to face resistance around $3200, a level that previously acted as resistance from mid-April to mid-June.
