Ethereum Drops 5% Amid Leverage-Driven Selloff

Ethereum’s Sharp Decline: A Leverage-Driven Selloff

Ethereum’s approximately 5 percentage point decline in the last hour is part of a broader, leverage-driven market selloff, exacerbated by Ethereum-specific selling and a localized liquidation flush.

Market Wide Liquidation Wave

Ethereum’s move occurred during a broad crypto deleveraging. Over the last 24 hours, the total crypto market cap fell from about $2.28 trillion to $2.19 trillion, a drop of roughly 4%, with 24h volume up more than 20%, indicating heavy forced trading. Perpetual futures open interest for the whole market fell about 4.7%, while global open interest also declined about 4.7% and average funding turned clearly negative, pointing to leverage being unwound on the long side. A market-wide liquidation report noted that in one recent 24-hour window traders lost roughly $1.23 billion to forced liquidations, about 83% of which were long positions, with Ethereum alone seeing more than $250 million liquidated as price broke below support levels around $1,900 to the high-$1,800s region.¹ Another outlet reported over $1.9 billion in liquidations in a 24-hour period as Bitcoin dropped to the low $60,000s and Ether fell almost 10% to below $1,800, again with the vast majority of liquidations coming from bullish positions.²

The last hour’s ETH move is not an isolated event. It is one step in a broader leverage flush where long positions across the market have been forced out, producing fast, mechanical price swings as positions are liquidated.

Ethereum Specific Selling And ETF Outflows

On top of market-wide pressure, there are clear ETH-specific catalysts affecting sentiment and order flow.

Ethereum Foundation Wallet Sales

Multiple on-chain and media reports show a Foundation-linked wallet (0x5CBC) selling around 5,000 ETH (about $9.9 million) between 10 and 14 November, with an additional 1,000 ETH sale as the market broke below $2,000.³ The ETH was swapped for USDS stablecoins and parked in a multisig wallet. Analysts note that prior Foundation sales in October and early November were followed by 7–10% pullbacks, even though the absolute amounts are small relative to global volume.

X posts in the last day highlight another batch of 2,500 ETH (about $4.6 million) sold from the same cluster of addresses, on top of the previous 5,000 ETH over recent days, bringing recent sales to 7,500 ETH.⁴ Others summarize that 7,500 ETH were offloaded in four days for roughly $14.5 million in stablecoins while ETH slid from above $2,400 to just above $1,800.⁵

Spot ETF Outflows from ETH Products

Several market notes tie ETH weakness to sustained outflows from spot Ethereum ETFs. One analysis reports that US spot ETH ETFs saw roughly $695.9 million in net outflows in November, with redemptions on seven of the first eight trading sessions and tens of millions exiting just on November 13.⁶ Another recap of broader spot crypto ETFs says ether funds have shed nearly $399 million over the past week alone, marking seven consecutive weeks of net outflows.⁷

Technical Context: Loss of Key Support

Analysts note ETH losing the $2,000 level it had defended on prior pullbacks and then slicing through Fibonacci and moving-average supports. One report highlights that ETH fell through Fibonacci support near $1,920, with the next support around $1,830 and then $1,725 if that level fails.⁸ Others frame $1,800 as the next major downside target once $1,880 gives way.⁹

For ETH, the last 1-hour swing rides on a stack of negative medium-term forces: visible Foundation selling, persistent ETF redemptions and a clean technical breakdown that encourages shorting and discourages dip-buying.

Last Hour: Long Liquidation Flush Around Key Levels

Looking more narrowly at the approximate hour in question, data and reports point to liquidation flows as the direct driver rather than a new headline.

Exchange Liquidation Spike in That Hour

One near-real-time report shows that in the hour ending at 01:37 UTC on 15 November, the three large derivatives venues Binance, Bybit and OKX together liquidated about $72.28 million in positions.¹⁰ Longs accounted for about 96% of that hour’s liquidations. By asset, Bitcoin saw roughly $46.52 million in liquidations, Ether about $12.90 million and Solana about $3.57 million.

ETH Hourly Price Behavior

Over roughly the last hour of data, ETH traded from about $1,736 up toward $1,813, with strong intrabar volatility. That movement matches a market that has just flushed a large set of leverage and is trying to re-equilibrate around new support.

Intraday Pattern: Cascade Then Reflex

Combined with earlier 24-hour reports of $256+ million in ETH liquidations¹ and almost $2 billion in broader crypto derivatives being wiped out,² the picture looks like this:

1. ETF outflows, macro worry and Foundation selling help push ETH through multi-day support zones.
2. As those levels break, stop losses and over-leveraged long positions are forced to close, generating a self-reinforcing downward spike.
3. In the specific hour you are asking about, a concentrated wave of long liquidations on major exchanges and the aftermath of that wave create an outsized move in ETH, which can be either the tail end of the dump or a sharp reflex bounce off new lows.

No New Fundamental Headline in That Exact Hour

In the time slice covered by that liquidation burst and your 1-hour window, there is no single fresh news catalyst like a protocol bug, regulatory ban or ETF rejection specifically hitting ETH. Instead, all the substantial news items in the prior several hours are continuations of existing themes: Foundation sales, ETF outflows and macro risk-off.

The immediate cause of the 1-hour, ~5 percentage point move is the mechanical clearing of leveraged positions and trades clustered around important levels, not a brand-new fundamental shock. The fundamental drivers had already set up the conditions for that liquidation flush.

Conclusion

The roughly 4.96–5 percentage point move in ETH over the last hour is best explained as the local expression of a broader, leverage-driven selloff plus Ethereum-specific overhangs, not as a reaction to a single headline released in that exact 60-minute window.

1. Market-wide deleveraging, with billions of dollars in long liquidations and shrinking open interest, pulled ETH down alongside the rest of crypto.
2. Ethereum-specific factors, especially visible Ethereum Foundation sales and sustained spot ETF outflows, weakened ETH relative to some peers and made supports more fragile.
3. In the specific hour you care about, a spike in long liquidations on major derivatives venues, including roughly $12.9 million in ETH positions in that hour alone, appears to be the direct catalyst for the sharp price swing, with price overshooting as positions were forcibly unwound.

Confidence: Medium, because