ETH futures were sold off amid escalating geopolitical tensions.

The leading altcoin Ethereum (ETH) has broken through the narrow consolidation zone on Friday, marking the start of a prolonged downtrend that is likely to continue into the new week. This altcoin has fallen below the $2,300 mark – the first time in a month – as tensions between America, Israel, and Iran escalated yesterday.

This breakdown move has triggered a wave of selling pressure in the ETH futures market, raising concerns about a deeper decline in the near future.

Bearish faction ETH tightens its initiative

The negative trend for ETH is reflected in the taker buy/sell ratio*, which has continuously recorded negative values since Friday. As of now, this ratio stands at 0.93 according to data from CryptoQuant, indicating that sell orders are dominating buy orders across the entire ETH futures market.

Ethereum: Taker buy/sell ratio | Source: TradingViewThe taker buy-sell ratio for an asset measures the ratio of buy and sell volumes in the futures market of that asset. A value above 1 indicates that buy volume outweighs sell volume, while a value below 1 suggests that many futures traders are selling rather than buying.

The buy-sell ratio of ETH takers has been steadily declining over the past few days, indicating increasing selling pressure from futures traders. The rising selling pressure reflects weak sentiment and, if it continues, could lead to a faster price decline.

Moreover, ETH is still trading significantly below the 20-day exponential moving average (EMA), reflecting that bearish sentiment remains dominant. As of now, this important EMA is acting as a dynamic resistance level above the ETH price at $2,497.

The 20-day EMA of ETH | Source: TradingViewThe 20-day EMA measures the average price of an asset over the last 20 trading sessions, with more weight given to recent prices. When the price falls below the 20-day EMA, it signals a short-term downtrend and sellers are in control.

This further reinforces the weak bullish structure around ETH, as the asset struggles to reclaim the short-term support zone.

Can ETH hold the support level?

Currently, ETH is trading at $2,288, recording a 10% fall in the day amid a market-wide adjustment over the past 24 hours. With increasing selling pressure in both the spot and futures markets, ETH is at risk of falling to the support zone of $2,185.

If this support level is broken, the price of ETH may continue to fall down to 2,027 dollars.

ETH price analysis | Source: TradingViewHowever, if buying pressure gradually increases, ETH may recover and rise to the level of 2.424 dollars.

*Taker ( The taker) is the one who executes the trade immediately at the current available market price, while the "Maker" ( the maker) is the one who places a buy or sell order at a more specific price. Therefore, in a Bitcoin transaction, the one who executes the trade immediately ( Taker) is the buyer or seller at the price already provided in the market.

Minh Anh