This is dangerously close to a new all-time high—Ethereum last broke the record, $1,432, on January 13, 2018.
The rest of the market is also performing well. The global crypto market cap surpassed $1 trillion for the first time earlier this week thanks to the success of Bitcoin, which sits at around $40,800 as of this writing. The price of Bitcoin has risen by almost 25% this week.
Why the rise? Why any rise?
Much ado was made about a supposed claim from an Ethereum whale for a long position of over $1 billion on Bitfinex. Claiming a long position on Bitfinex means to pay off all loans initially taken out to increase exposure to ETH, and to keep holding the asset.
Some onlookers thought that this means that the whale, whose sudden dump could hurt the market, intends to keep their ETH because they expect the bull run to continue.
~1.4MM ETH ($1.7B) long claimed on BitFinex. Was being built since Feb-March. Majority of the size was put on sub $200, over $1B in pnl.
Interesting time to close 1 month before CME futures and launch and below ATH but at $1200 level of interest. pic.twitter.com/ZUMmHyGvoq
Professor Andrew Urquhart is Professor of Finance and Financial Technology and Head of the Department of Finance at Birmingham Business School (BBS).
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