Ether Drops Below $2,000 as Ethereum ETFs Lose $2.35 Billion in Seven Weeks

Ether fell below $2,000 on November 12 for the first time since August. By the morning of November 13 it was trading near $1,900, giving back almost all of its gains of the past few months.

Why it matters

Large investors are cutting their ether faster than their bitcoin. US exchange-traded funds that hold ether have seen outflows for seven weeks in a row since late September, $2.35 billion in total. This year they have lost about three times more of their assets, as a share, than bitcoin ETFs.

ETF flows show what big money does. When funds sell, they sell the actual coins, which adds pressure on the price.

Who is still buying

Not everyone is leaving. Three addresses linked to Erik Voorhees, the founder of ShapeShift and an early bitcoin supporter, bought 23,091 ETH, worth about $47.4 million, in one day, according to on-chain tracker EmberCN. The average price was about $2,051.

Ether holders are also locking up more coins. The share of ETH that is staked, meaning committed to securing the network in return for a yield, hit a record 36.3%, according to Token Terminal. Staked coins are not for sale in the short term.

The wider market

Ether is falling with the rest of crypto. Bitcoin dropped below $70,000 the same night, and options on about $280 million of ETH expire on Deribit on November 13. Ether is one of the coins that set the tone for altcoins: the Altcoin Season Index shows how the rest of the market is doing against bitcoin.