Ethereum has dropped by around 20% in the last 24 hours, falling below $1,500 for the first time since March 2023.
Ethereum (ETH) is trading at $1,476 at the time of reporting, hitting a 24-hour high of $1,799. As Donald Trump’s drastic new tariffs put pressure on the crypto market, broader selling appears to be linked to macroeconomic tensions. The market has seen widespread losses as a result of a sharp decline in ETH prices.
More than $400 million Ethereum positions have been settled in the last 24 hours, according to Coinglass data. The long deal, which lost around $341 million, accounted for the majority. Open interest in Ethereum futures fell by 15% as traders emerged from their positions.
One major investor was particularly severely affected. A whale, who received massive loans from decentralized finance platform Sky (formerly the maker), lost 67,570 ETH, or more than $100 million, according to a lookonChain post on April 7. The loan was supported by ETH and when prices fell, the system automatically sold collateral to cover the debt.
Just as $eth plummeted, this whale’s $67,570 eth ($1006mm) held by #maker has been liquidated!
– lookonchain (@lookonchain) April 7, 2025
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Aside from the latest selloffs, Ethereum spent some rough months. It closed the first quarter by 45%, losing its value of around $170 billion. This marks the third quarter of Ethereum in its first quarter since 2016. Despite leading DEX trading volume in March, network fare revenues have fallen sharply from $142 million in January to just $21 million in March, according to Defilama data.
Transaction fees were reduced by EIP-1559 in March 2024. This, also known as the Dencun upgrade, helped reduce the fees. But Ethereum has once again become inflationary. One important deflation indicator, ETH burn rates have fallen to their lowest levels since August 2021.
Analysts appear to be approaching ETH more cautiously following a much optimistic outlook for most of 2024. In March, Standard Charter analysts reduced their year-end Ethereum price target from $10,000 to $4,000 due to increased competition with the Ethereum Layer-2 solution.
These rollups continue to pull users away from the main chain by offering faster speeds and cheaper rates. Future Pectra upgrades will strengthen the network’s basics, but ongoing macroeconomic pressures are expected to affect Ethereum prices.
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