Ether (ETH) dropped to as low as $1,833 Friday afternoon, its lowest price since April 9, CoinDesk data shows. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has now erased all price gains of its recent rally following the seamless implementation last week of the highly anticipated Shanghai upgrade.
ETH has declined more than 13% from a Tuesday high of $2,118. It has fallen 5.3% over the past 24 hours as investors continue to weigh macroeconomic and crypto-industry focused uncertainties that have afflicted the wider digital asset market.
The April 12 hard fork, the last major step in the transformation of the Ethereum blockchain from a proof-of-work to more energy-efficient proof-of-stake protocol, enabled withdrawals of some $35 billion worth of tokens locked in staking contracts.
ETH began spiking a day after the event and surged to its highest level in 11 months. It had been lingering below $2,000 for most of the past year.
ETH’s steady decline since Tuesday has come amid a wider price slump. Bitcoin was recently trading as low as about $27,200, down more than 3% over the past 24 hours and has tumbled more than 10% from a high Tuesday comfortably above $30,000.
According to Oanda Senior Market Analyst Edward Moya, the crypto markets have been showing weakness in the past few days as concerns around sticky inflation, stock market earnings and looming recession have dragged prices lower.
-CoinDesk
