Ethereum continues to remain under pressure due to options expiry

While Ethereum saw some recovery and trimmed the losses, it continued to trade lower along with other altcoins. At 14.40 hours IST on Friday, Ethereum was down about 4 per cent at near the $1,750 mark.

According to the data from Coinmarketcap, the total market capitalization of the second largest cryptocurrency dropped to $213.65 billion.

However, the volumes of the crypto behemoth rose over 77 per cent in the last 24 hours as Ether tokens worth $27.86 billion exchanged hands during the period.

The data suggested that there are a total of 120,941,087.94 Ether tokens are in circulation and unlike Bitcoin, there is no capping on the supply and circulation of the token.

Ethereum is a decentralized open-source blockchain system that features its own cryptocurrency, Ether. ETH works as a platform for numerous other cryptocurrencies, as well as, for the execution of decentralized smart contracts.

Ethereum was first described in a 2013 whitepaper by Vitalik Buterin. Buterin, along with other co-founders, secured funding for the project in an online public crowd sale in the summer of 2014.

Darshan Bathija, Co-Founder & CEO, Vauld, said taking macroeconomic conditions into consideration, the risk-off approach means that investors will stay away from high-risk investments at the moment.

Reading the technical charts, Coinstore Cryptocurrency Exchange said that Ether, the most popular altcoin, is under pressure due to the $1 billion options expiry this week.

“Various macroeconomic factors are adding to the woes that may push Ether further towards a new lower support level,” it added.