Ethereum falls below $1.5K for the first time since March 2023

Ethereum has dropped about 20% over the past 24 hours, falling below $1,500 for the first time since March 2023. 

Ethereum (ETH) is trading at $1,476 at the time of press, having recorded a 24-hour high of $1799. The broader selloff appears tied to macroeconomic tensions as Donald Trump’s sweeping new tariffs put pressure on the crypto market. The market has seen widespread losses as a result of the steep ETH price decline. 

According to Coinglass data, over $400 million worth of Ethereum positions have been liquidated in the past 24 hours. Long trades, which lost roughly $341 million, accounted for the majority of this. As traders pulled out of positions, open interest in Ethereum futures has dropped by 15%.

One major investor was particularly severely impacted. A whale who had taken out a sizable loan on the decentralized finance platform Sky (formerly Maker) lost 67,570 ETH, or more than $100 million, according to Lookonchain’s Apr. 7 post on X. The loan was backed by ETH, and when the price dropped, the system automatically sold the collateral to cover the debt. 

Aside from the most recent selloff, Ethereum has had a rough few months. It closed the first quarter of the year 45% down, losing about $170 billion in value. This made Q1 2025 Ethereum’s third-worst quarter since 2016. Despite leading in DEX trading volume in March, the network’s fee income dropped sharply, from $142 million in January to just $21 million in March, as per DefiLlama data.

Transaction fees were reduced by the March 2024 EIP-1559, also known as the Dencun upgrade, which helped to lower fees. However, Ethereum became inflationary once more. One important deflationary indicator, the burn rate of ETH, has fallen to its lowest level since August 2021.

Analysts seem to be approaching ETH with greater caution following a largely optimistic outlook in 2024. In March, Standard Chartered analysts lowered their year-end Ethereum price target from $10,000 to $4,000 due to the growing competition with Ethereum layer-2 solutions. 

These rollups continue to draw users away from the main chain by offering quicker speeds and cheaper fees. Even though the upcoming Pectra upgrade will strengthen the network’s fundamentals, the ongoing macroeconomic pressure is still expected to have an impact on Ethereum’s price.