- Ethereum price hit an 18-month high at press time.
- The recent price rise has made ETH price more volatile.
Ethereum (ETH) price rose to its highest level in 18 months, sharing a statistically significant correlation with leading coin Bitcoin (BTC), which rose above $40,000.
On December 4, BTC briefly traded above $42,000 for the first time since April 2022.
These positive sentiments undoubtedly spread to the ETH market as the altcoin traded at $2,250 on the same day, a price level last recorded in May 2022.
New highs, new problems
In addition to the price rise, ETH’s open interest has also risen significantly over the past few days. By December 4, this amount had grown to more than $4.5 billion, the highest since February 2023.
Source: Santiment
Rising open interest coupled with rising prices suggested new funds were flowing into the market, fueling bullish momentum. This means that the upward trend is likely to continue.
However, the rally may be short-lived as price volatility gradually recovers and traders take on more and more leveraged positions.
ETH’s Bollinger Bands indicator (BB) evaluated on the daily chart confirms the potential for significant price movement soon. At press time, altcoin prices were trading above the upper band of this indicator.
Likewise, since November 30, the gap between the upper and lower bands of the BB indicator has continued to widen.
A gradual widening of these bands usually indicates increased market volatility. The coin’s Bollinger Bandwidth, which subsequently increased, confirmed the increase in volatility.
Source: TradingView
The recent price surge has led to an increase in the expected leverage ratio for ETH. This indicates that traders are borrowing more money to trade major cryptocurrency assets at the time of press.
ETH’s rising leverage ratio is often considered a bullish signal. In particular, this suggests that traders are confident that the price of the coin will continue to rise.
However, highly leveraged traders are also risky because they are more vulnerable to liquidation if the market moves in the opposite direction.
Realistic or not, the market cap of ETH in BTC terms is:
AMBCrypto found that ETH’s funding ratio has been positive since the October rally. This means that traders have continuously opened trading positions in anticipation of a price rally.
However, as the market approaches overheated territory, this downside may result in some positions being liquidated.