ETH price has recently been struggling to escape from the $2,000 price level.
It tanked below that same level as the bears regained dominance, largely aided by FUD around options expiry last Friday.
Roughly $2.13 Billion worth of Ethereum options expired on March 28th. Options in the crypto market expire on the last Friday of every month.
According to options data, 301,000 ETH coins were locked in options contracts set to expire today. That is equivalent to $574.3 Million at market value.
ETH had a 0.39 call put ratio. A ratio under 1 is traditionally considered favorable for the bulls.
However, the market has been moving in the opposite direction likely due to uncertainty around the options expiry.
ETH Price Plummets, Goes Under $1900
The bearish market reaction sent ETH price action as much below $1900 at the time of writing this piece.
$1900 is an important price level because it previously manifested as a support zone.
However, the sell pressure has forced ETH to stay under the $1,900 mark, for now.
ETH was down by 0.94% intraday at $1824.39 at press time. The cryptocurrency had attempted a bullish recovery prior to that, which may have boosted appetite for leverage among ETH holders.
ETH’s estimated leverage ratio clocked a new ATH this week. As a result, the market was bound to look for liquidation opportunities.
ETH had $97.85 Million worth of long liquidations in the last 24 hours at the time of observation.
Although the latest ETH price crash may have been a leverage shake down event, lquidations may also offer some insights.
For example, liquidations have been declining over the last 3 months. But, can the declining liquidations finally pave the way for a strong recovery?
ETH Hackers Take Advantage of the Latest Crash
Recent reports suggest that hackers may have taken advantage of the latest wave of sell pressure.
Looksonchain data revealed that new 2 wallets received 14,064 ETH from Chainflip and Thorchain.
According to the report, the two addresses then sold the ETH at a $1,956 price tag, which means they received about $26.87 Million worth of DAI.
Analysts so far speculate that the massive ETH sale may have been orchestrated by hackers.
However, it is also possible that the sale may have been part of a manipulation effort aimed at boosting FUD, potentially spoofing more investors into panic selling.
It is also worth noting that the wave of sell pressure has so far demonstrated a cooling off just above $1,900.
This could thus indicate the possibility that a recovery may occur from the same zone especially if demand makes a strong comeback at recent lows.
Whale and institutional reaction to this latest dip may offer insights into how ETH could perform in the coming week.
