Ethereum nears key levels as macro repricing weighs on crypto industry
Around $315.6 million worth of leveraged long positions would be liquidated on Hyperliquid if the price of ethereum dropped to $1,350.
The price of ethereum is down over 24% in February and some traders are preparing for lower levels.
“ETH dipped below $1,900 this week, a level that matters psychologically more than technically,” according to Jasper De Maere, OTC trader at crypto-native algorithmic trading company Wintermute. “The real level to watch here for ETH is ~$1,600.”
Marginal activity remains protective as the market isn’t ready to reward early positioning, De Maere said. “Right now crypto is getting sold as the highest beta growth asset, alongside tech and momentum, in a world where risk premia on growth are rising and the Fed can’t act,” he wrote in a Monday report.
“The narrative around stagflation, deglobalisation and Fed paralysis is starting to feel less like a short term catalyst and more like a genuine repricing of the macro backdrop, one that favours hard assets, commodities and value over growth,” De Maere continued. “Crypto sits at the wrong end of that trade for now.”
The next support for ethereum is the $1,500 level, per Aurelie Barthere, principal research analyst at blockchain analytics firm Nansen. “The correlation with BTC is at 0.99, so it is all a macro story at the moment with BTC leading the way,” Barthere told Sherwood News.
Traders are cognizant of these levels because substantial trading positions would be forced to unwind if ethereum were to fall more. For example, if ethereum drops to the $1,350 mark, around $315.6 million worth of leveraged long positions would be liquidated on one venue, crypto perpetuals platform Hyperliquid, data from CoinGlass shows.
These levels on Hyperliquid matter not only because Hyperliquid holds a substantial position in the overall market as a blockchain network, but the protocol’s liquidation bands also reflect leverage across other centralized exchanges, which don’t have publicly available data.
In other words, volatility on one trading venue, centralized or not, can bleed into the wider industry.
