Both Bitcoin and Ethereum have entered periods of consolidation over the past two weeks despite attempts by both to break above and below their respective medium-term price ranges.
Ethereum may continue its consolidation for the time being, as there has been one large holder that has appeared with a large amount of ETH to sell.
This may prevent the cryptocurrency from moving higher in the near term and may signal that there are holders of the coin that aren’t willing to let Ethereum go up just yet.
Ethereum sees large sell wall
According to crypto trader “Cyrii,” there is an entity or group of traders that are selling over 32,000 Ethereum, currently worth around $40,000,000, on Bitfinex’s Ethereum/USD market.
This is by far the largest entry/wall on this market’s order book.
Someone selling 32000 $ETH on Bitfinex ETH/USD
32000 $ETH = $40,000,000
Credit @truenomic pic.twitter.com/HrlD4lPoGL
— cyrii_MM 中国拉盘 (@cyrii_MM) January 23, 2021
Analyst Nik Yaremchuk noted more recently that there is now 25,000 Ethereum worth of selling pressure left. As can be seen in the chart he shared, there has not been a single trade printed above the $1,250 level, as the selling has yet to pull that sell order.
It may be that this sell wall is related to a large claim that took place on Bitfinex’s margin book a few weeks ago.
As noted by crypto-asset analyst “Light,” the $1.7 billion long opened on Bitfinex by an unknown entity has started to shrink over the past few days via what is known as a “claim.”
A claim on Bitfinex is when a margin trade is converted into an exchange trade, meaning the cost to borrow capital is settled to the lender.
This means that the trader was holding a large ETH spot position, and might be unwinding it now.
Strong fundamentals
This selling pressure being placed in Ethereum markets comes in spite of the fact that the cryptocurrency has seen strong on-chain trends.
As reported by this outlet previously Spencer Noon, an investor at crypto-focused venture firm Variant and an on-chain analyst, says that there are a number of on-chain trends indicating Ethereum will “blow past its all-time high.”
- Ethereum’s transaction fees are more than double of Bitcoin, indicating to some that it is one of the most useful, if not the most useful, crypto-asset and blockchain network.
- The amount of value transferred on Ethereum via stablecoins, ETH itself, and other tokens is surpassing Bitcoin and is far above that of other blockchains. This is largely attributed to the strength in the DeFi space and the rise of stablecoins, of which there is now over $20 billion worth on the Ethereum network, discounting algorithmic stablecoins.
- Ethereum has an all-time high of daily active addresses, at around 550,000 (90-day moving average).
- Ethereum has seen a strong influx of capital locked up in its native decentralized finance applications, with the total value locked in DeFi reaching past $25 billion.
Disclaimer: This author is an analyst at ParaFi Capital. ParaFi Capital may hold positions in assets mentioned in this article. The views displayed in this article are opinions of the author—and the author only.
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