Ether needs to reclaim the “macro” range above the $2,200 mark to amass more upside momentum as crypto markets remain pressured by global macroeconomic concerns until at least the beginning of April.

Ether (ETH) price is down over 51% during its three-month downtrend after it peaked above $4,100 on Dec. 16, 2024, TradingView data shows.

ETH/USD, 1-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

To stage a reversal from this downtrend, Ether price needs to reclaim the “macro range” above $2,200, wrote popular crypto analyst Rekt Capital in a March 19 X post:

“If price can generate a strong enough reaction here, then #ETH will be able to reclaim the $2,196-$3,900 Macro Range (black).”

ETH/USD, monthly chart. Source: Rekt Capital

Meanwhile, Ether’s open interest surged to a new all-time high on March 21, raising investor hopes that large traders are positioning for a rally above $2,400.

Ether futures aggregate open interest, ETH. Source: CoinGlass

Ether remains unable to gain significant momentum despite positive crypto regulatory developments, such as the US Securities and Exchange Commission dropping the lawsuit against Ripple.

Some analysts expect traditional and cryptocurrency markets to be pressured by global trade war concerns until at least the beginning of April, when countries may find a resolution to the retaliatory tariffs.

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ETH whales only ones buying: Nansen analyst

While some crypto traders often blame large investors, or whales, for market downturns, these participants are simply “playing the market in any direction,” according to Nicolai Sondergaard, a research analyst at Nansen.

The analyst said during Cointelegraph’s Chainreaction daily X show on March 21:

“The ETH whales in the 10k to 100k have actually been accumulating ETH, whereas everyone else has been dumping.”

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The number of addresses with at least $100,000 worth of Ether started rising at the beginning of March, from just over 70,000 addresses on March 10 to over 75,000 on March 22, Glassnode data shows.

ETH: Number of Addresses with Balance ≥ $100k. Year-to-date chart. Source: Glassnode 

In comparison, there were over 146,000 wallets with over $100,000 in ETH balance on Dec. 8, when Ether’s price was trading above $4,000.

Despite the potential for short-term volatility, investors remain optimistic for the rest of 2025, VanEck predicted a $6,000 cycle top for Ether’s price and a $180,000 Bitcoin (BTC) price during 2025.

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Bitcoin analysts are eying the weekly close to gauge Bitcoin’s price trajectory for next week, as traditional and crypto markets are lacking direction amid a mix of global trade war fears paired with easing inflation concerns.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) price may see more downside next week unless it manages to close the week above the $85,000 psychological mark, according to Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget Research.

“Bitcoin’s relief rally after the FOMC meeting and lower CPI readings has analysts eyeing a weekly close above $85,000, as critical for resuming upside momentum,” Lee told Cointelegraph, adding:

“A close above this level could prevent a drop to $76,000 and signal strength, while $87,000 would provide even clearer bullish confirmation. Macro factors like steady rates and cooling inflation support risk assets, but the Sunday close will be decisive.”

BTC/USD, 1-year chart. Source: Cointelegraph

Bitcoin’s price has been lacking momentum, rising only 0.9% over the past week, Cointelegraph Markets Pro data shows. A disappointing weekly close risks a revisit to the previous week’s price low of $76,600.

Related: Whale closes $516M 40x Bitcoin short, pockets $9.4M profit in 8 days

Markets should “pay attention” to long-term holder accumulation: analyst

While Bitcoin may experience short-term downside, the relief rally after the Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) meeting was a positive sign for market participants, according to Enmanuel Cardozo, market analyst at Brickken real-world asset (RWA) tokenization platform.

Instead of short-term fluctuations, investors should pay attention to long-term Bitcoin holder accumulation to gauge BTC’s trend, the analyst told Cointelegraph, adding:

“Long-term holders continue to stack, as we’ve seen in on-chain data, the accumulation by these holders, quietly building since the dip is what we should be paying attention to.”

Long-term holders resumed their Bitcoin accumulation at the beginning of February, buying over $21 billion worth of Bitcoin since.

BTC: Total supply held by long-term holders, year-to-date chart. Source: Glassnode

The total Bitcoin supply held by long-term holders increased by over 250,000 BTC in less than two months, from 13.1 million BTC on Feb. 11 to over 13.3 million on March 22, Glassnode data shows.

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BTC/USD, 1-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Despite a wave of positive regulatory and crypto-specific developments, global tariff fears will continue to pressure the markets until at least April 2, according to Nicolai Sondergaard, a research analyst at Nansen.

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The Sonic blockchain is working on the implementation of its yield-generating, algorithmic stablecoin despite fears over a potential collapse similar to the Terra-Luna meltdown that led to the industry’s longest crypto winter.

Algorithmic stablecoins employ code-based mechanisms to ensure their price stability, as opposed to fiat stablecoins pegged directly to the value of the underlying currency.

The Sonic blockchain is working on the implementation of an algorithmic stablecoin with up to 23% annual percentage rate (APR), according to Andre Cronje, co-founder of Sonic Labs and founder of Yearn.finance.

Cronje wrote in a March 22 X post:

“POC looks good. Yielding > 200% APR @ 10m tvl, around 23.5% APR @ 100m, steady at around 4.9% at 1bn+. Will scale up and get team for a full release.”

Source: Andre Cronje

The announcement came a day after Cronje admitted to experiencing Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related to algorithmic stablecoin due to previous cycles:

“Pretty sure our team cracked algo stable coins today, but previous cycle gave me so much PTSD not sure if we should implement.”

In May 2022, the $40 billion Terra ecosystem collapsed, erasing tens of billions of dollars of value in a matter of days. Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin, TerraUSD (UST), was yielding an over 20% annual percentage yield (APY) on Anchor Protocol.   

As UST lost its dollar peg, crashing to a low of around $0.30, Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon took to X to share his rescue plan. At the same time, the value of sister token LUNA, once a top-10 crypto project by market capitalization, plunged over 98% to $0.84. For reference: LUNA was trading north of $120 in early April.

Related: Sonic TVL rises 66% to $253M since rebranding from Fantom

Sonic claims to be the world’s fastest Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chain, with a “true” 720 milliseconds (ms) finality — the assurance that a transaction is irreversible, which happens after it is added to a block on the blockchain ledger.

Sonic has garnered attention in the crypto industry since its testnet achieved a 720 ms finality on Sept. 8, 2024.

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Investors are still buying collapsed LUNA token years after Terra crash

The Terra (LUNA) token is down over 98% from its all-time high of 19.54 recorded on May 28, 2022, nearly three years ago, CoinMarketCap data shows.

LUNA/USD, all-time chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

Despite the collapse, the token saw over $21 million worth of trading volume over the past 24 hours, which shows that “people are still buying it even though it’s dead,” noted popular technical analyst Optimus KevTron.

The collapse of the algorithmic stablecoin issuer created shockwaves among both crypto investors and lawmakers.

To create more stability, the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) bill will prohibit the issuance of algorithmic stablecoins to avoid another collapse similar to the Terra ecosystem’s.

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