A representation of Ethereum using the native cryptocurrency Ether.
Dado Ruvik | Reuters
Ether fell as much as 9% on Monday, falling below a key support level at $3,600, shortly after a multi-million dollar hack affected the protocols on the token’s native network.
The Ethereum-minted cryptocurrency last fell 6.6% to around $3,600, according to data from CoinMetrics. This is about 25% from the all-time high of $4,885 reached on August 22nd.
The coin’s decline comes after an Ethereum-based decentralized financial protocol balancer lost possibly more than $100 million to a hack on Monday. The exploit is the latest in a series of bearish events that have kept digital asset investors on edge over the past few weeks.
In mid-October, US President Donald Trump announced “significant” tariffs due to China’s restrictions on rare earth exports, prompting investors to flee cryptocurrencies to risk-off assets such as gold. And although the president later walked back his threat, his comments sparked a selloff and a cascade of liquidations of highly leveraged digital asset positions.
Last week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned investors to expect future rate cuts, adding to existing bear market sentiment.
“These events have left investors in an uncertain position going into November,” Juan Leon, senior investment strategist at Bitwise, told CNBC. “Despite the macro volatility, this October’s drawdown appears to have been a sharp but healthy deleveraging event that flushed speculative excess from the market.”
Some stocks related to digital assets are also under pressure. Coinbase stock fell nearly 4%, while Bitcoin treasury firm Strategy fell more than 1%.
