Ether stabilizes following $540 million sell-off, surpassing overall cryptocurrency market performance.

Crypto markets continue to face pressure despite stronger U.S. equity futures, with ether making a move towards $2,000 as significant weekend selling subsides, led by gold.

ETH stabilizes as alternative coins lag (CoinDesk)

Key points:

• ETH increased by 0.43% following trader Garrett Jin’s transfer of $540 million to Binance, which resulted in oversold conditions and a slight rebound.
• HYPE, ZEC, and XMR decreased by over 3%, DOGE has fallen 10% within 24 hours, and ZRO has dropped 34% over five days.
• Gold is priced at $5,000, down from January’s highs but outperforming silver and cryptocurrencies; U.S. markets are closed for a holiday.

The cryptocurrency market continues to experience strain on Monday, even as U.S. equity futures have risen approximately 0.25% since midnight UTC.

Bitcoin BTC$68,832.73 is trading at $68,710, reflecting a 0.1% decline. Altcoins like HYPE, ZEC, and XMR are down over 3%.

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Ether ETH$1,978.09 stands out on Monday, increasing by 0.43% since midnight as it attempts to approach $2,000 following a challenging weekend sell-off triggered by selling pressure from trader Garrett Jin.

On-chain data indicates that a wallet linked to Jin deposited over $540 million worth of ether to Binance during the weekend, leading to a significant increase in sell volume relative to other exchanges.

This selling pressure created oversold conditions that ultimately facilitated Monday’s recovery.

Gold is trading at $5,000 on Monday, down from its January 29 peak of $5,600, but it is outperforming both silver and cryptocurrencies, which have fallen by 36% and 21% respectively during the same timeframe.

U.S. markets are closed on Monday due to a public holiday.

Derivatives positioning

• The crypto futures market continues to experience capital outflows, with notional open interest (OI), which reflects the dollar value of total open or active contracts, declining to $98 billion.
• De-risking is evident across the board, with OI decreasing by 1% and 2.7% in bitcoin and ether futures, respectively, over a 24-hour period. XRP, DOGE, SUI, and ADA experienced declines of 6% or more.
• OI in futures associated with gold token XAUT increased by 8% as traders continued to allocate capital to traditional assets.
• BTC and ETH’s 30-day implied volatility has reversed from a substantial increase from an annualized 50% to nearly 100% earlier this month, when prices fell. This reversal suggests a significant reduction in volatility risk pricing, supporting the case for price recovery.
• The gap between ether and bitcoin implied volatility indexes is starting to widen, indicating expectations for larger fluctuations in ether.
• Funding rates for various alternative tokens, including XRP, TRX, DOGE, and SOL, remain negative, reflecting a trader preference for bearish, short positions. If the market remains robust, these bears may be compelled to close their positions, potentially resulting in a “short squeeze” upward.
• SOL futures on CME show an annualized premium near zero, indicating dwindling buy-side pressure. BTC and ETH futures are trading with slight premiums.
• On Deribit, a premium of $3 million was paid for the $75,000 strike bitcoin call option. This substantial flow likely represents a bullish outlook on the market.
• Nonetheless, put options tied to BTC and ETH are still more expensive than calls across all time frames, signaling ongoing downside concerns.

Token talk

• The altcoin market saw a familiar, low-liquidity decline on Sunday before experiencing a minor recovery on Monday morning.
• The popular memecoin DOGE$0.1026 has declined by more than 10% in the last 24 hours but has stabilized since midnight UTC, while XRP has increased by 1% by midnight despite a loss of 8% since Sunday morning.
• Layer zero (ZRO) continues to lose traction after its early February surge, having dropped over 34% in the past five days, including a 10% decrease in the last 24 hours. This decline follows the introduction of a native blockchain in collaboration with Wall Street veterans Citadel Securities and DTCC.
• The CoinDesk 5 (CD5) Index, heavily weighted in bitcoin, has risen by 0.38% since midnight UTC, whereas the altcoin-dominated CoinDesk 80 (CD80) has decreased by 0.17% over the same timeframe, highlighting relative weakness among altcoins.