Ether set for its worst February in years? 25% drop raises red flags

Ethereum (ETH) was enjoying a rollercoaster ride after bouncing back from its February 3 low of $2,125 and gearing up for a breakout until the recent disaster struck the market. Ether could be headed to recording its worst February performance ever if it remains under the $2,400 price level.

The global digital assets market witnessed massive red indexes on Tuesday as Bitcoin dipped below the $88,000 zone. The cumulative crypto market cap dropped by more than 8% over the last day to stand at $2.88 trillion. More than $300 billion of market cap has been erased in crypto in 24 hours.

Ethereum in crisis?

Ethereum price dropped by over 10% in the last 24 hours as selling sentiments prevailed among investors. Going by the history, February has been a very bullish month for Ethereum and there has been only one such red February on record, in 2018. ETH is already down by 23% this month, it could be another exception for the biggest altcoin.

The Bybit hack saw $1.5 billion vanishing from the market, marking it the biggest crypto heist in history. Panic swept the market and also killed ETH’s momentum. Reports have revealed that the suspected culprit behind this act is none other than North Korea’s Lazarus Group.

Bybit’s CEO Ben Chou claims they’ve covered the losses and promised an audited Proof-of-Reserves to regain trust.

$ETH could be heading for its worst February if it drops below $2400. 📉

Historically, February has been bullish for ETH, with only one red month in 2018. But with a 23% drop already, this could be another exception.

Macroeconomic uncertainty, including new tariffs from the… pic.twitter.com/YyW5ZhIv7V

— Spot On Chain (@spotonchain) February 25, 2025

Ethereum has already dropped 35% since its December high of over $4,100 and managed to bounce off the crucial $2,500 support level, giving traders hope. The biggest question here is whether this is a shakeout before ETH reclaims $3,000, or are we staring down the start of a deeper downtrend?

Ether price dipped to touch the $2,339 mark before rebounding back to trade over the crucial $2,400 mark. Ethereum is trading at an average price of $2,424 as of press time. Its 24-hour trading volume is up by 66% to stand at $39.6 billion.

ETH liquidation cascade incoming

After a brutal market-wide sell-off, sentiments are shaky, and global equities aren’t helping anymore. Traders are hoping that ETH should not fall below $2,000 in this shakeout as MakerDAO has three major liquidation points for ETH-backed debt positions.

The first will hit at $1,906, the next will hit around $1,842 and the last will hit at $1,793.

Each liquidation is worth from $109 million to $126 million with a massive total of $340 million. If ETH dips another 18%-22%, these liquidations could trigger a DeFi-wide cascade sending ripple effects across protocols and exchanges.

Let's hope ETH doesn't fall below $2k in this shakeout.

That's because there are 3 large MakerDAO liquidation levels with the first being hit at $1,906.

All three liquidation levels have a total of over $300m in onchain liquidations. pic.twitter.com/xsIbKmJGY5

— Nic (@nicrypto) February 25, 2025

So far, $300 million in ETH positions have already been liquidated on centralized exchanges in the past 24 hours. More than $277 million of the liquidated positions (90%) turned out to be long positions. This suggests that traders were bullish that Ether price would pick up but the market crashed down.

Whales are loading up

Ki Young Ju, founder of Cryptoquant shared his bullish take on Ether in an X post. He highlighted that the market didn’t see any sell pressure post-Bybit hack as on-chain and market data remained neutral. He added that exchange selling takes time, and OTC offloads barely affect the price.

He mentioned that Ethereum holds 56% of the stablecoin market cap. US President Donald Trump is easing crypto regulations, which signals that more firms may use ETH-based stablecoins and smart contracts in 2025.

The investors have already seen the approval of Ether spot ETF and regulatory tailwinds could trigger a “Large Cap ETF alt-season.” Ju added that crypto whales are accumulating in the dip as 10,000-100,000 ETH wallet balances have jumped by 24% over the last year. He suggested that ETH’s current price is nearing the cost basis of accumulating addresses.

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