Ethereum Price Slips Below $4,200 – Can Bulls Defend $4,000?

Ethereum has come under heavy selling pressure, slipping below $4,200 after a sharp daily decline of nearly 7%. The move wiped out more than $44 billion in market value in less than a week and left traders questioning whether bulls can hold the $4,000 psychological zone. With ETH now down over 15% from its all-time high of $4,953 set just a month ago, the market faces both technical and macro headwinds.

Ethereum Price Analysis

Ethereum currently retails across exchanges at $4,173, marking a 6.89% drop in 24 hours and an 8.13% weekly decline. The sharp pullback coincides with a surge in trading volume, which jumped 122% to $41.86 billion. Market cap now stands at $500.67 billion.

Technically, ETH broke below several critical supports, one at the 30-day SMA, which is $4,465, the 78.6% Fibonacci retracement at $4,378, and the $4,394 horizontal support seen on the charts. Momentum indicators confirm the bearish tilt, with the RSI at 18.7, signaling extreme oversold conditions. Successively, the MACD histogram at -13.94 shows acceleration in downside momentum.

This steep fall was likely triggered by cascading liquidations. Successively, $452M in total liquidations were seen in the last 24 hours. This is with 72% being long positions, suggesting traders’ stop-losses were triggered once ETH fell under $4,400. The $4,221–$4,000 zone, which aligns with June’s swing low, now stands as the critical support area. If broken, downside could extend toward the distant 200-day EMA at $3,393.

Sentiment and Security Risks

From a sentiment perspective, the Fear & Greed Index fell to 47, signaling a shift from mild optimism to a more cautious stance compared to 51 just last week. Ethereum’s higher turnover ratio of 8.71%, versus Bitcoin’s 5.2%, shows that traders are offloading higher-beta assets like ETH. This is amid uncertainty around Federal Reserve policy moves and ongoing turmoil in Chinese markets. With $1.01 trillion in derivatives open interest, conditions were primed for cascading stop-loss triggers, amplifying the recent selloff.

On the security front, reports of phishing campaigns tied to EIP-7702 wallets resurfaced this week. $150,000 was siphoned off through malicious contract approvals. While this is not a direct protocol flaw, it raises adoption concerns. Industry responses will be key, with MetaMask already planning to roll out a “transaction simulation” feature in Q4 2025 to help users avoid such exploits.

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