Investors lose more than $115m as Ethereum strengthens
Many crypto investors were betting on further declines in ether prices. However, the main altcoin has consolidated above the $1600 mark, which left tens of thousands of retail holders at a loss.
According to Coinglass, during the last 24 hours, traders liquidated short positions worth 73,000 ETH, which means that investors lost a total of about $115 million. Many experts agreed that such a dynamic in ether was caused by the forthcoming upgrade of the Ethereum ecosystem.
The initial excitement about the event pushed the ether to the $2000 level. Now investment interest in the main altcoin has started to rise again, giving it the opportunity to consolidate above the $1600 level.
An independent group of developers announced that they plan to implement a fork of ether and keep it running based on the consensus Proof-of-Work algorithm. It was also reported that the new coins will be sent to all current Ethereum holders.
According to experts, many crypto-enthusiasts will want to take advantage of this opportunity.
According to analyst agency Glassnode, the open interest metric for ethereum-backed derivatives increased significantly, reaching $7.6 billion. The publication of the final date for the merger of the networks had a beneficial effect.
It is worth noting that volatility within Ethereum has risen strongly over the past week. It is possible that this is due to speculative investor activity. Also, many crypto-enthusiasts on social media note: they are wary of the technological problems that may arise during the ETH ecosystem update.
