Over $350 million worth of Ether tokens are set to be unlocked in the next nine hours, threatening to lower the ETH price below a critical support level.
A total of 145,380 Ether (ETH) is set for withdrawal at 8:00 pm UTC, threatening an additional $353 million worth of selling pressure for the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, according to Token Unlocks data.
While Ether withdrawals don’t necessarily translate into selling, a significant part of these tokens could still end up being sold on the open market.
While the $350 million unlock is significant in size, similar withdrawals are routine since Ethereum's Merge and Shanghai upgrades, according to Bitfinex Analysts, who told Cointelegraph:
“$350M worth of Ether is not a very significant amount in context of the fact that it’s a $300 billion asset and the daily volume on CEXes amounts to $24 billion. We do not think this particular piece of news is significant enough to cause a market collapse or a 10% decline in ETH as mentioned.”
Ether price has been in a downtrend for three consecutive weeks, dipping to an over five-month low below $2,200 this week after the three-day $510 billion crypto sell-off. Losing this psychological support line could introduce more panic selling.
Related: Jump Trading sells another $29M Ether with $63M left to go — Is the bottom near?
Validators could introduce another $877 million in Ether selling pressure
Ethereum validators are preparing to cash in their tokens and staking rewards, potentially looking to sell.
There is an additional 360,000 Ether pending for withdrawals by over 10,000 validators. This could introduce an additional $877 million worth of selling pressure for Ether.
While the crypto market sell-off that led to Ether’s decline was catalyzed by an array of macroeconomic factors, industry-specific developments also played an important role in the price crash.
The market crash could be directly linked to aggressive selling by Jump Trading, according to QCP Group, one of Singapore’s first digital asset trading groups. QCO Group wrote in an Aug. 5 report:
“The immediate trigger in crypto seems to have been aggressive ETH selling from Jump Trading and Paradigm VC. The move was probably exacerbated by market makers scrambling to cut short gamma as front-end ETH volumes spiked more than 30% to 120%!”
Yet, Jump Trading wasn’t the only one selling Ether. Five of the top market makers have sold a total of 130,000 Ether, worth over $290 million, while Ether’s price crashed from $3,000 to below $2,200.
Related: Bitcoin could fall below $50K if Magnificent 7 stocks stage another $500 billion loss
Is the Ether price bottom in?
The local bottom may be in for Ether price, according to crypto analysts.
ETH fractals also point to a potential price breakout in the near term, according to pseudonymous analyst Crypto Bullet, who wrote in an Aug. 6 X post:
“Ethereum cycle comparison: $ETH 2017-2021 vs #ETH 2021-2024. Looks like we’re exactly where we should be.”
Fractal patterns are used by technical traders to identify key support and resistance levels and potential trend reversals based on historical data.
Other analysts are also expecting a local price bottom, including popular analyst Poseidon, who wrote in an Aug. 7 X post:
“The market will bottom in the green and will offer several chances to buy $ETH over the next 2 months.”
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