Key points:
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Retail investors bore the brunt of ETH’s long liquidations, but they also stepped in to buy the dip to $3,600.
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ETH price rebounded to its average trading range while Bitcoin continues to face heavy selling below $116,000.
ETH (ETH) price continues to face selling near $4,000, to the surprise of many traders who were sure that the $10.16 billion in strategic Ethereum reserves and 19-day streak of inflows to the spot ETH ETFs (totalling $21.85 billion in total holdings) would lift the altcoin’s price above the long-term resistance level.
Following Bitcoin’s negative response to US President Donald Trump’s new series of tariffs against Canada, Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam and a handful of other countries, ETH price sold off to $3,600.
Liquidation heatmap data from Hyblock shows ETH price tapping a long leverage liquidation level at $3,600 on Thursday, and shorts remain at risk near $3,900, where selling has been most intense throughout the week.
As $115.8 million in ETH longs were liquidated over the past 5 hours, Ether’s aggregated funding rate turned negative for the first time since June 25, a notable development considering how many crypto traders view negative funding as a buy signal for BTC and ETH.
Taking a more granular view of the price breakdown by breaking ETH’s cumulative volume delta into buckets of 100 to 1,000 (retail investors) and 10,000 to 1 million (whales), it is clear that retail traders bore the brunt of the long liquidations.
This is reinforced by the anchored whales versus retail and the true retail longs versus shorts indicators, showing retail traders as the entities positioned net long during the liquidation-driven sell-off.
Related: Bitcoin range chop continues, but a breakout is brewing
At the time of writing, it’s clear that retail bulls have stepped in to buy the dip, and ETH price is on the verge of reclaiming the point of control at $3,775 while Bitcoin (BTC) struggles to hold above $116,000.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.