Key Takeaways
- Ethereum surged nearly 15% on Friday, fueled by hints of potential interest rate reductions from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. However, it narrowly missed surpassing its all-time high of $4,878.
- Over the past 24 hours, liquidations of Ethereum long and short positions exceeded $340 million, representing more than half of all liquidations within the cryptocurrency market.
- Although factors like favorable regulatory updates, corporate treasury acquisitions, and ETF inflows have strengthened demand, Ethereum has yet to break a price record it hasn’t reached in almost four years.
Ethereum [ETH] traders betting against the crypto experienced significant losses on Friday as its price approached its record high. Despite coming close, ETH couldn’t quite overcome the threshold.
Data from CoinGlass reveals that in the last day, short positions in ETH totaling more than $259 million were forcefully closed. Additionally, approximately $80 million in long ETH positions also expired. This brings the total of ETH liquidations to beyond $340 million in a single day.
That massive number accounts for well over half of every single crypto liquidation in the previous 24 hours. Over $668 million in crypto derivative positions were wiped out, demonstrating that at least for now, Ethereum has taken center stage.
After a sluggish period, Ethereum has seen considerable gains in August, but it recently struggled due to broad economic uncertainties. However, remarks made by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell regarding potential interest rate adjustments led to a surge in Ethereum and other alternative cryptocurrencies.
As a direct response to this announcement, ETH experienced an approximate 15% jump, briefly rising to $4,842. Ethereum previously reached an all-time peak of $4,878 on November 10, 2021, during the height of the last crypto bull run.
Although traders attempted to push the cryptocurrency past the milestone, it ultimately fell short. ETH stalled after being less than 1% away from its all-time high and began trading down, going below $4,800. At the time of this writing, it is priced at $4,773. ETH’s price had also previously almost reached a record high the previous week.
According to previous analysis, regulatory developments in the US beneficial to Ethereum have increased its buying appeal. Corporate treasury purchases of ETH and the rising popularity of Ethereum ETFs have dramatically reduced the available supply of ETH tokens.
According to Greg Magadini, the director of derivatives at Amberdata, Ethereum’s volatility is particularly high. Magadini likened the network to the iPhone, pointing out that the many services built on Ethereum’s smart contracts are similar to the apps in Apple’s App Store.
Despite these positive developments, ETH has not yet attained a new price peak. The cryptocurrency notoriously reacts slowly and has had trouble getting past its record high, in comparison to some rival tokens which have already accomplished this feat during the bull market.
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