Ethereum (ETH) has continued to decline alongside the rest of the crypto market, dropping over 9% in the daily timeframe and reaching new lows. As the cryptocurrency loses a “do-or-die” level, some analysts have expressed concern about ETH’s near-term future.
Ethereum Correction Targets $1,500
On Thursday, Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, reached an eight-month low of $1,934 after dropping below the psychological $2,000 barrier for the first time since May.
The cryptocurrency has traded between $2,100 and $4,400 over the past two years, moving between the upper and lower boundaries of its macro range throughout the cycle and only losing its crucial support during the Q1-Q2 2025 market correction.
In the past five months, ETH’s price has declined by over 60% from its August all-time high (ATH) of $4,956, raising concerns about the cryptocurrency’s short- and mid-term performance.
In an X post, market observer Daan Crypto Trades stated that the “overall price action has been awful this cycle, but the levels have been very clean” on Ethereum’s chart. “These horizontal areas are all you need to be watching for the Ethereum price, in my opinion,” he wrote. “Break one, target the next. Works both ways, obviously.”
Based on this, the trader highlighted the lower half of the altcoin’s macro range, where it has been trading for half of the cycle. If Ethereum is unable to reclaim $2,000-$2,100 soon, then the price would likely retest the $1,800 area.
“That’s the breakout level from before the large rally driven primarily by Tom Lee/Bitmine,” he pointed out. Similarly, Altcoin Sherpa suggested that Ethereum is in a similar “do-or-die region” like Bitcoin (BTC).
To the analyst, ETH’s chart “looks bleak” after losing the 200-Week Exponential Moving Average (EMA), adding that if it officially loses the $2,000 barrier, the altcoin will likely move to the April 2025 lows, located around the $1,400-$1,500 range.
ETH Crash Drags Investors
Notably, Ethereum liquidations, funds, and large-scale investors have taken a hit amid the recent price action. According to online reports, the unrealized losses of BitMine, the second-largest crypto treasury in the world, have significantly grown over the last couple of days.
As reported by NewsBTC, the crypto treasury company’s unrealized losses had risen to $6.6 billion by Monday, leaving the Ethereum treasury company “on track to become the 5th-largest documented principal trading loss in history if sold.”
In BitMine’s latest update, the firm’s chairman, Tom Lee, reiterated BitMine’s confidence in the cryptocurrency and its fundamentals despite the recent price action and broader market correction.
“We view this pullback as attractive, given the strengthening fundamentals. In our view, the price of ETH is not reflective of the high utility of ETH and its role as the future of finance,” Lee asserted. Nonetheless, Ethereum’s drop below $2,000 has pushed BitMine’s unrealized losses to over $8 billion.
Spot ETH exchange-traded funds (ETFs) also performed negatively over the past day, with the category bleeding nearly $80 million on Wednesday, and total net outflows of $68 million during the first three trading days of the week.
Meanwhile, Ethereum liquidations have hit $326.6 million over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGlass data. The data shows that around $245.5 million comes from long ETH positions, with nearly half of the total value wiped out just in the last four hours.
