Ethereum is attempting to stabilize around the $2,000 level as the broader 
crypto market shows tentative signs of relief. After weeks of persistent 
pressure, price action has paused its decline, but sentiment remains fragile. 
The recent rebound has helped ease immediate downside momentum, yet the 
technical structure still reflects a market recovering from significant damage 
rather than entering a confirmed uptrend. Related Reading: Engine Stalled: How 
The $8 Billion ‘October Shock’ Left Bitcoin’s Spot Market In A Liquidity Trap 
According to a CryptoQuant analyst, Ethereum endured a severe liquidation- 
driven sell-off in recent weeks, falling sharply from local highs near $3,300 
to lows around the $1,850 region. The intensity of this move becomes 
particularly evident when analyzing the Net Taker Volume (30-day moving 
average), a metric that measures aggressive market order activity. In 
February, this indicator plunged to its most negative level since last 
November, highlighting the dominance of aggressive sellers during the decline. 
Such extreme negative readings typically reflect panic-driven execution rather 
than orderly repositioning. When taker volume skews heavily to the sell side, 
it often signals forced exits, stop-outs, and cascading liquidations across 
derivatives markets. While Ethereum’s attempt to hold $2,000 suggests that 
immediate selling pressure may be easing, the underlying data confirms that 
the market recently absorbed one of its most intense bouts of downside 
aggression in months. Net Taker Volume Signals Capitulation — But Not 
Confirmation The dominance of towering red bars in Ethereum’s Net Taker Volume 
underscores how aggressively sellers controlled the order books during the 
recent decline. When taker sell orders consistently exceed taker buy orders by 
such a magnitude, it reflects urgency. This is not passive distribution; it is 
market participants hitting bids aggressively, often under stress. The 
combination of panic-driven exits, systematic short positioning, and forced 
long liquidations likely amplified the move from $3,300 to sub-$1,900 levels. 
Notably, the only meaningful cluster of green bars — representing aggressive 
buying — emerged in mid-January, coinciding with Ethereum’s local peak near 
$3,400. That brief resurgence in demand failed to sustain itself, after which 
sell-side momentum reasserted control. Structurally, this pattern suggests 
that upside liquidity was exhausted before a broader deleveraging cycle 
unfolded. Extreme negative Net Taker Volume readings are often associated with 
capitulation phases. Historically, such flushes can mark exhaustion points, as 
aggressive sellers eventually deplete themselves. However, capitulation alone 
does not confirm reversal. For a structural shift to materialize, the 
imbalance must normalize. A contraction in red bars followed by sustained 
green dominance would signal renewed conviction from aggressive buyers. 
Related Reading: The $2,000 Fault Line: Why Ethereum’s Record Volatility 
Signals An Imminent Explosion Ethereum Struggles To Reclaim $2,000 As 
Downtrend Persists Ethereum remains structurally weak despite brief 
stabilization attempts near the $2,000 level. The chart shows a clear 
breakdown from the $3,400–$3,600 region earlier this year, followed by a 
sequence of lower highs and lower lows — a textbook downtrend formation. The 
recent bounce has not altered this structure. Price is currently trading below 
the 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day moving averages, all of which are sloping 
downward. This alignment confirms bearish momentum across short-, medium-, and 
long-term horizons. Notably, the 50-day average has accelerated lower, 
reflecting sustained selling pressure rather than a temporary liquidity 
vacuum. Related Reading: Digital Gold Is Dead: The Institutional Architecture 
Binding Bitcoin To The Nasdaq In The 2026 Downturn The sharp decline toward 
the $1,850 zone was accompanied by a significant spike in volume, suggesting 
forced liquidations and aggressive distribution. Since then, volume has 
moderated during consolidation, indicating that while panic may have eased, 
conviction among buyers remains limited. Technically, $2,000 functions as a 
psychological pivot rather than confirmed support. A sustained move above the 
50-day average would be required to signal improving momentum. Conversely, 
failure to hold the current range could reopen downside risk toward deeper 
liquidity pockets. Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com

Ethereum’s Market Order Imbalance Hits Record Negatives: $1,850 Is Now The Line In The Sand

Bitcoin’s notorious four-year boom-and-bust cycle may be losing its grip as 
institutional demand, deeper liquidity, and shifting ownership patterns 
reshape market dynamics, potentially redefining how investors position bitcoin 
in long-term portfolios, according to Fidelity’s analysis. Fidelity: Bitcoin 
Is No Longer Just a Trade — It’s Emerging as a Core Long-Term Portfolio Asset 
Bitcoin’s long-standing four-year […]

Fidelity Discusses Bitcoin Moving From Short-Term Trade to Long-Term Macro Portfolio Asset

Paradigm&#8217;s Matt Huang previously said developments in AI were &#8220;too interesting 
to ignore&#8221; and that both AI and crypto will have plenty of overlap.

Crypto VC Paradigm expands into AI, robotics with $1.5B fund: WSJ

When US crypto regulators cracked down on Tornado Cash in 2022, the assumption 
was simple: shut down the tool, shut down the problem. It didn&#8217;t work out that 
way. Related Reading: Is Bitcoin The Poor Man’s Hedge Against Inflation? 
Coinbase CEO Thinks So New research from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative 
Finance (CCAF) shows that coin mixer usage has climbed back toward pre-ban 
levels — and that the people most effectively pushed out by the sanctions were 
not the criminals, but ordinary users seeking financial privacy. Railgun Now 
Dominates A Recovering Market According to CCAF researchers Wenbin Wu and 
Keith Bear, total crypto mixer transactions reached approximately 32,000 in 
2025 — a significant jump from roughly 21,000 in 2024 and 16,000 in 2023. 
Usage has been climbing steadily since the US Treasury lifted its sanctions 
against Tornado Cash on March 21, 2025. Railgun, a protocol that screens 
deposits against lists of flagged addresses, now handles 71% of all mixer 
transaction volume. Tornado Cash accounts for around 25% of 2025 transactions, 
while Privacy Pools holds the remaining 5%. Both Railgun and Privacy Pools 
attempt to filter out known bad actors before crypto funds enter the system. 
But reports from CCAF note a meaningful gap — blacklists are updated only as 
new exploits are discovered, leaving a window where funds from freshly flagged 
addresses can still pass through. Sanctions Scared Off Legitimate Users More 
Than Criminals The 2022 crackdown caused immediate disruption. Tornado Cash&#8217;s 
daily transactions collapsed by 97% within days. Across the broader mixer 
market, volume fell 45%. But the disruption was uneven. Wu told researchers 
that sanctions &#8220;primarily deterred compliant users while illicit actors 
adapted&#8221; — first by migrating to alternative platforms, then to cross-chain 
bridges and decentralized exchanges altogether. Deposit patterns tell the same 
story. Before 2022, centralized exchanges — which require identity 
verification — contributed meaningfully to mixer funding. After the ban, those 
deposits essentially vanished. By 2025, 95% of all crypto mixer funding came 
from unlabeled wallet addresses with no recorded entity ties, up from 76% in 
2020. Related Reading: Bitcoin Sell-Off Slows Down, But The Road To Recovery 
Is Long — Analyst Most Transactions Now Happen Within 24 Hours Before the ban, 
most mixer activity occurred more than 24 hours after wallet creation. That 
pattern has flipped. Researchers say this faster behavior is &#8220;consistent with 
users seeking to avoid identification.&#8221; Still, a 2023 Federal Reserve Bank of 
St. Louis paper found that only around 30% of Tornado Cash traffic could be 
linked to illegitimate sources — a reminder that privacy tools serve lawful 
purposes too. The demand, from both camps, never went away. Featured image 
from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Crypto Mixing Is Back — And Criminals Adapted Faster Than The Rules Did

The bill, introduced by Federal Deputy Tabata Amaral, amends the current 
regulation and establishes the crime of cryptocurrency tax evasion, aiming to 
curb the rising volume of remittances and settlement alternatives using dollar 
proxies, including stablecoins. Brazil Aims To Criminalize Undeclared 
Stablecoin Transactions In New Bill Brazil is taking measures to tighten its 
grip on […]

Cryptocurrency price in USD