Ethereum, the second-largest crypto by market capitalization, fell by double digits overnight to lows of $2,368 in the early hours of Monday, following U.S. President Donald Trump's new tariff announcements.
At time of publication, Ethereum is trading at $2,544, down 17.8% on the day, according to data from CoinGecko.
Across the broader crypto market, Ethereum led over $2.3 billion in total crypto liquidations across 738,000 traders in 24 hours. Ethereum bore the brunt at $611 million in combined long and short positions, according to CoinGlass data.
However, that figure could yet climb, with a recent note from the co-founder and CEO of crypto exchange Bybit Ben Zhou claiming that the "real total liquidation" is "a lot more than $2B," as shown by CoinGlass.
Zhou estimates the actual liquidations across the crypto market to be "at least around $8-10b." These numbers are based on Zhou's claim that Bybit’s operations have an API limitation over how much data is ingested on their feeds. Other exchanges also do the same "to limit liquidation data," Zhou said.
Using available CoinGlass data, long traders took the heaviest losses, accounting for $1.9 billion or 84% of total liquidations, reflecting widespread bullish positioning as the crash ensued. ETH long positions accounted for $473 million out of this total.
“While most risk assets, including crypto, are trading lower, ETH has seen a notably steeper decline compared to BTC, SOL, and BNB. This continues the trend of ETH being one of the least favored trades this cycle, with ETH/BTC persistently making new lows,” Min Jung, analyst at Presto Research, told Decrypt.
Jung points to uncertainties related to the controversies surrounding leadership in the Ethereum Foundation and how it seeks to shift its image toward institutions with recent moves such as the launch of Etherealize. These have “further weighed on sentiment, exacerbating ETH’s underperformance,” Jung said.
The sudden crash also represents Ethereum's largest intraday loss since May 2021, when it swept from an all-time high of $4,308 to as low as $2,200 in a matter of seven days, a report from Chainalysis details.
At press time, Ethereum sits roughly 48% lower than its all-time time high at $4,878 in November 2021, according to CoinGecko data.
V for volatility
Volatility metrics exploded during Asian trading hours today, with Ethereum's one-day at-the-money volatility surging from 34% to 184%. Deribit's ETH DVOL index, measuring expected price turbulence over four weeks, jumped from 67% to 101%.
For context, the Deribit ETH DVOL index is measured as forward-looking volatility, with the calculated value taken to mean the 30-day expectations over an annualized range.
The market panic intensified as traders rushed to hedge downside risk, with the put-call ratio soaring from 0.6 to above 2.5.
"This decorrelation reinforces the view that today's risk-off move is driven by cross-asset portfolio rebalancing rather than a single-asset event," analysts from QCP Capital said in their Asia Colour research note published early Monday.
A notable market as the Ethereum drop ensued over the day involved a dormant whale transaction on Arkham, who deposited $228.6 million worth of ETH to Bitfinex shortly before the crash, potentially adding to selling pressure.
The severity of Ethereum's decline, which far exceeded Bitcoin's 4.7% drop to $94,438, highlighted the asset's vulnerability to broader market factors.
The crypto market sentiment indicator now stands at "fear," rated at 44, according to data from the Fear and Greed Index—though historically, such extreme levels have presented buying opportunities.
“Sell first, ask questions later. Such market behavior is consistent with past instances where macroeconomic policy shifts affected liquidity suddenly.” Jack Tan, co-founder of crypto exchange WOO X, told Decrypt. “This reaction reinforces that crypto remains a terrible short-term hedge against fear and uncertainty—unlike gold, which traditionally serves as a safe haven in turbulent markets.”
Crypto bears fiat problems
The crash comes amid broader concerns about Trump's trade policies, including new 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and 10% on China. These measures could potentially inject inflation into the global economy, complicating central banks' efforts to lower interest rates.
"While these tariffs were widely known, the market had been primarily fixated on the DeepSeek saga, seemingly underestimating the geopolitical response and push back from foreign leaders threatening retaliation of those tariffs," 10x Research tweeted.
The impact extended beyond crypto markets, with Dow futures dropping more than 650 points early Monday as European stocks followed suit alongside dollar gains.
"Recognize that tariffs are often a temporary negotiation tool to achieve a goal. The ultimate goal is to seek a multi-lateral agreement to weaken the dollar, essentially a Plaza Accord 2.0." Jeff Park, head of alpha strategies at Bitwise tweeted.
Park is referring to a 1985 agreement between the U.S., Japan, West Germany, France, and the U.K. to depreciate the U.S. dollar against the yen and Deutsche Mark, aiming to reduce U.S. trade deficit by making exports cheaper.
This implies policy interventions that could be happening both for and among these fiat currencies, aimed at potentially addressing trade imbalances.
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