Altcoins News

Story: Tom Lee Says Oil Prices Are Crushing Ethereum as ETH Falls to Ten-Month Low Against Bitcoin

By Evie Vavasseur

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Geopolitical Shock Hits at the Worst Time. The sell-off got uglier after geopolitical tensions flared, specifically following a statement…

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Short Positions Dwarf Longs, CME Gaps Add Risk. The leverage picture is ugly. Market observer CW flagged that short positions on Ethereum now…

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Ethereum is getting hammered. Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee made the case on May 18 that rising oil prices are directly dragging ETH down, calling the inverse relationship between oil…

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Lee's read is pretty straightforward: over the past six weeks, Ethereum's price has basically mirrored oil's climb, moving in the opposite direction as crude pushed higher.

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That's easy to say. Harder to believe when the charts look like this.

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The sell-off got uglier after geopolitical tensions flared, specifically following a statement from US President Donald Trump directed at Iran. Markets didn't like it.

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The worst of it played out on Binance and OKX, where aggressive taker selling pushed ETH toward $2,100. On Binance, taker sell volume alone surpassed $1.

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ETH/BTC dropped below 0.028 during the chaos. A ten-month low. The last time the pair sat at this level was the middle of last year, and it's a number that stings for anyone…

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See also: $BTC and $ETH Trusts Hit Japan as SBI and Rakuten Skip the Crypto Exchange Step

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The liquidation wave cleared out a lot of the bullish leverage that had been sitting in the market. What's left is a landscape dominated by shorts and a lot of caution.

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Technically, it's not clean either. A new CME gap formed around $2,200. And there are two other unfilled CME gaps sitting between current prices and $3,200.

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Trader Crypto Ed spotted that both Bitcoin and Ethereum have entered what he calls "green box" support zones. That sounds encouraging.

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The oil correlation angle is worth sitting with for a second. It's not a typical driver for crypto prices — most market watchers focus on Fed policy, risk appetite, Bitcoin…

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Read also: Iran Launches Bitcoin-Settled Hormuz Shipping Insurance Worth Over $10 Billion

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It's also worth noting that Ethereum has been underperforming Bitcoin for a while now, and the ETH/BTC drop below 0.

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