Detalles de Insights

Crypto is never short of drama, and a particularly stark episode unfolded when EOS began unloading ETH at a rate that overwhelmed individual OTC desks. This forced a coalition of desks to coordinate their efforts to avert a total market collapse. As the price of ETH plummeted, ICOs saw the dollar value of their treasuries decrease dramatically—from $100 million to $45 million in just a few months. Confronted with this rapid devaluation, these projects had to weigh the ideological desire to support the community by holding ETH against the pragmatic need for USD to fund operations. The market's nosedive prompted a flurry of activity. By the time ETH had fallen 70%, ICOs scrambled to liquidate large clips of their holdings through OTC desks, leading to a market saturated with ETH. Some ICOs, recognizing the severe market conditions, accepted significant discounts to liquidate quickly through these desks. However, others held out, trapped by the hope of recovery and unable to accept lower valuations. Efforts to stabilize the market were made by various players, including myself. In my case, our group of buyers reached out through personal connections to select ICOs, offering to buy out their treasuries en masse at some discount. Despite these efforts, many ICOs rejected these collaborative buyout offers, opting instead to tackle the market's brutal reality alone. This led to a scenario where those needing liquidity began selling directly from the order books, intensifying the downward pressure on ETH prices. It was a stark demonstration of how isolated decisions could amplify a downturn across the market. Desk traders and market makers were critical in this phase, buying thousands of coins at the front of the book in an effort to capture discounts. This aggressive buying was pivotal; without it, ETH prices might have collapsed entirely, potentially dropping to zero. ETH finally bottomed out at $80. In the aftermath, smarter players began to manage their holdings more judiciously, gradually reducing their exposure over the next 60 to 90 days. This tumultuous period underscored a critical lesson: the delicate balance between market sentiment and actual valuation can shift rapidly, with profound consequences for all involved. My prevailing investment theory at the time—which I discussed with the likes of tetranode on th timeline—was that ETH, was valued at $400 before the ICO frenzy and absent the shoveling of piles of eth on the market, would likely regain its value. Today,Ethereum remains under pressure at press time, looking at the formation in the daily chart. In summary, ETH is stable on the last day but down 9% in the last week of trading. Of note, there has been a drastic drop in trading volume over the past few days. Overall, traders are upbeat, expecting prices to turn around and rip higher, clearing immediate local resistances. Even as this develops, on-chain data points to other developments that leverage traders should closely monitor.