Ethereum prices plunged on Friday, October 10, as tariff concerns accelerated losses in risk assets.
The world’s second-largest digital currency by market capitalization has plummeted to nearly $3,500, according to TradingView’s Coinbase data.
After rising to nearly $4,400 earlier in the day, this represents a decline of around 20%, additional Coinbase numbers from TradingView reveal.
Interestingly, Ether has rebounded after hitting an intraday low, approaching $4,000 and trading near $3,800 at the time of this writing.
Stock prices also fell, with the S&P 500 dropping 2.7% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 1.9% on the day, according to Google Finance data.
Gold futures contracts, often touted as a safe-haven asset, are up more than 1% at the time of writing, trading at around $4,035 an ounce, Google Finance statistics show.
ether sharp drop
Analysts cited several factors when explaining the sharp drop in Ether prices, while repeatedly emphasizing the impact of renewed concerns about tariffs.
President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that the United States will begin imposing new 100% tariffs on China starting November 1st. He said the measures could be triggered sooner depending on what actions China takes in the future.
President Trump also announced that he will not meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the 2025 South Korean APEC later this month.
Greg Magadini, Director of Derivatives, Digital Asset Data Provider amber data, He commented on the current situation and highlighted how it is impacting investor sentiment and thus the market.
“A flight to quality has pushed the US dollar and US Treasuries higher as traders turned defensive,” he said in an email. “Markets are once again focused on global tariff concerns today following strong gains in cryptocurrencies, precious metals and equities.”
“President Trump is speculating a large-scale increase in tariffs on China in response to China’s protectionism,” Magadini said.
“If China starts to become a trade hawk along with President Trump, the world’s top economies could become a drag on global growth between the two countries,” he said.
“This has caused the market to move in a ‘risk-off’ direction today, causing a decline in BTC and other cryptocurrencies.”
Tim Enneking, Managing Partner at Sirion, also highlighted how digital assets have moved in conjunction with other risk assets, as well as commenting on President Trump’s actions and how they have affected the market.
“The correlation between US stocks and cryptocurrencies is quite different, but today’s initial rise and subsequent fall was 100% correlated (and perfectly timed) with the US S&P’s initial rise and subsequent very rapid 2% fall after President Trump announced that it was not worth talking to him, let alone meeting with him,” he said in an email around 3pm ET.
“And as of this writing, the US stock market is trending lower after the initial decline due to President Trump’s announcement, with ETH and most of the rest of the crypto ecosystem following suit,” Enneking added.
Joe DiPasquale, CEO of crypto hedge fund manager Bitbull Capital, offered a different take, citing several variables as the reason for Ether’s recent decline, including tariff concerns.
“Ether’s decline appears to be a combination of technical and macro factors,” he said in an email. “The token encountered resistance near $4,400 and an extended liquidation accelerated the decline as momentum stalled.”
“At the same time, fresh tariff concerns weighed on a wide range of risk assets, the dollar strengthened, and high-profile short calls on crypto finance companies further weighed on sentiment,” DiPasquale said.
Jonathan Morgan, lead cryptocurrency analyst at StockTwitz, also pointed to several variables, but decided to focus on the impact of liquidating leveraged positions.
“This decline is almost entirely a result of the unusually fast extinguishment of leveraged ETH longs,” he wrote in an email.
“And I don’t think the recent ETF flow data screams confidence in ETH. On October 7th, there was a huge spike in ETH net flows of around $420 million, then on the 8th it was just $70, and yesterday (9th) it turned net negative,” Morgan added.
