Ether (ETH) price dropped to $1,410 on April 7, marking its lowest level since March 2023. This sharp decline triggered liquidations of leveraged ETH futures worth over $370 million in 2 days, according to CoinGlass data. However, the altcoin managed to recover above the $1,500 mark as the S&P 500 index reclaimed its psychological 5,000 support level.
Ether/USD (blue) vs. total crypto market capitalization (magenta). Source: TradingView / Cointelegraph
Over the past 30 days, Ether has underperformed the broader cryptocurrency market by 14%. Despite this, professional traders are not yet ready to turn bearish, as suggested by Ethereum’s derivatives data and onchain metrics. While this data does not guarantee that Ether’s price has reached its bottom, the reduced demand for bearish positions below $1,600 offers some reassurance for bullish investors.
Ether 2-month futures annualized premium. Source: laevitas.ch
On April 7, the Ether monthly futures premium rose to 4% after dipping to 3% earlier in the day. Although still below the neutral threshold of 5%, this marks an improvement from March 31, when the indicator hit a low of 2%. Currently, there is a noticeable lack of demand from long positions (buyers), but this is not unusual following a steep 30% drop in ETH’s price over the past month.
Ether is a victim of worsening macroeconomic conditions
Investors remain concerned that escalating global trade tensions could lead to an economic recession and reduce interest in risk-on assets. This scenario also weakens the potential positive impact of a possible interest rate cut during the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) next meeting on May 6-7. Typically, such a move would benefit the cryptocurrency market by lowering returns on fixed-income investments.
Despite US President Donald Trump’s strong push for interest rate cuts, as expressed in his Truth Social post on April 7, Fed Chair Jerome Powell remains cautious about inflation trends. Powell reportedly stated on April 4: “It is too soon to say what will be the appropriate path for monetary policy,” according to Yahoo Finance.
Adding further pressure to Ether’s…
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