On Monday, Ethereum’s price fell by about 6.75%, landing at $2,394.66. This drop was part of a wider sell-off in the crypto market, where the total value of all digital assets slipped by around 1.4% to $3.25 trillion.
After reaching a high of $2,587 on May 18, ETH slid to an intraday low of $2,353. Trading volume more than doubled, hitting about $30.4 billion as more people sold their holdings.
The sell-off was triggered in part by Moody’s downgrading the US credit rating from AAA for the first time in over 100 years. Moody’s cited the $36 trillion national debt, rising interest costs, and big budget deficits. As a result, Treasury yields jumped, and investors grew wary of risky assets like cryptocurrencies.
On top of that, leveraged traders were forced out of their positions. Over the last 24 hours, about $255 million worth of ETH derivative positions were liquidated—with roughly $200 million of that from bets that the price would go up. These forced sales make prices fall even more. Across all crypto markets, total liquidations reached $665 million.