- Ethereum has risen 91% in the last 60 days.
- The price has slipped 6% from its fresh all-time high.
- Expect volatile price action in the short-term, says analyst.
Ethereum investors are booking profits after the cryptocurrency almost doubled in price in the last 60 days and reached a new all-time high of $4,946.
Onchain data from Glassnode shows that Ethereum investors, on average, have secured more than 100% in paper gains, even after Monday’s 6% price slump.
Historically, that’s when sellers offload Ethereum, as was the case in March 2024 and December 2020.
The selloff is already happening. Ethereum’s net taker volume, a metric indicating whether aggressive buying or selling is the dominant force on crypto exchanges, has turned negative, according to CryptoQuant data.
Meanwhile, short sellers are piling into bearish bets on Ethereum futures contracts on the CME.
For Illia Otychenko, lead analyst at crypto exchange CEX.IO, aggressive selling and mounting shorts are putting downward pressure on Ethereum’s price.
But that doesn’t mean the bull run is over for Ethereum, Illia said.
“Such a combination could lead to two potential outcomes: either [Ethereum] faces a short-term correction due to selling pressure, or it could see a local short squeeze if bullish momentum stays intact,” Otychenko said in comments shared with DL News.
“Either way, [Ethereum] appears to be poised for a significant directional move.”
Traders are already changing their posture ahead of any whipsaw in the market.
Options data from Deribit, a crypto derivatives exchange, show traders are bearish on Ethereum in the short term, with September price calls closer to $4,000. That’s a possible hedge against a price slide in September.
Traders of perpetuals, futures contracts without expiries, however, lined up longs at more than double the size of shorts, which indicates long-term bullish appetite for Ethereum’s price prospects.
Earlier in August, Maelstrom’s chief investment officer, Arthur Hayes, predicted that Ethereum could rise as high as $20,000 by the end of the cycle.
Osato Avan-Nomayo is our Nigeria-based DeFi correspondent. He covers DeFi and tech. Got a tip? Please contact him at osato@dlnews.com.
