Ether erases gains from Jackson Hole rally after hitting new record

Ether is pulling back to start the week, after hitting a fresh all-time high over the weekend.

The price of the second largest cryptocurrency fell 5% to $4,588.85 on Monday, according to Coin Metrics. On Sunday, it rose to a fresh record of $4,954.81, after hitting an all-time high Friday for the first time since 2021.

Meanwhile, bitcoin was last lower by more than 1% at $111,501.74. Over the weekend, it dropped to $110,779.01, its lowest level since July 10. The flagship cryptocurrency hit its most recent record of $124,496 on Aug. 13.

Both coins have both erased their gains from Friday, when crypto assets took off with the broader market after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell hinted at upcoming rate cuts and investors returned to risk-on mode. That triggered forced selling of more than $245 million of long positions in ETH and about $175 million in long bitcoin positions in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGlass.

Ether, rather than bitcoin, has been leading the crypto marker for several weeks thanks to regulatory tailwinds, a boom in interest in stablecoins and buying en masse by a new cohort of corporate ether accumulators.

That shift in leadership has helped sustain ETH, which has sustained the $4,000 level this month after unsuccessfully testing the resistance mark a handful of times since 2021.

“The buyers are finally bigger than the sellers,” said Ben Kurland, CEO at crypto research platform DYOR. “ETH ETFs are drawing steady inflows, and public companies are beginning to treat ETH as a treasury asset they can stake for yield — a stickier form of demand than retail speculation.”

“Additionally, nearly a third of supply is locked in staking, scaling solutions are mature and, with rate cuts back on the table, the cost of capital is falling,” he added. “Those forces turned $4,000 from a resistance level into a foundation for re-pricing ETH’s next chapter.”