Ethereum [ETH] On The Verge Of A Death Cross Formation, Possible Drop To Sub-$200 USD?

• Ethereum (ETH) nears a death cross formation on the daily candle charts as price drops below $230 USD.
• Fundamental factors remain bleak for the second largest cryptocurrency, is $200 on the horizon?

The market is falling hard as Bitcoin (BTC) slipped below $9,000 for the first time in a month leading to a market wide selloff, Ethereum (ETH) –the second largest crypto – losing 7% in the past day. Despite the developments in preparation of the launch of ETH 2.0 and a swelling DeFi market, ETH’s price is plummeting at a rapid pace, threatening a completion of a death cross pattern on the daily charts.

Ether currently trades at $230.37 USD, a strong push from intraday lows of $216 in the early trading hours in the Asian market.

ETH/USD drops 6.86% in a day as death cross looms

A look at the daily chart technical indicators signals a possible turn of the recently bullish market to a sour bearish one. The moving averages are converging towards a death cross – a strongly bearish technical indicator – which if completed may set the price towards the $200 key support level.

The daily volumes on the ETH/USD pair are on a spike in the last three days as the market began its downtrend. This signals the market bears are finally out of hibernation after a lengthy 2 month explosive period on crypto market. However, the returns on ETH are still pretty solid since the start of 2020 despite losing quarter its value over the past 72hours.

Can DeFi save the face of ETH?

Despite the sharp fall in the past few days, ETH remains profitable to the long time holders, providing a yearly return of 64% in the past year, 52% in the past three months and 35% in the past month. The digital asset still trades 84% from its all-time high price recorded in early January 2018.

The DeFi space, which is heavily taunted as the key to Ethereum’s supremacy, has grown to lock over $1 billion on its financial platforms. However, the impact of ETH price in relation to DeFi products is still heavily felt. As the asset lost almost a quarter of its value in the past three days, DeFi value has plummeted.

$2M+ worth of collateral liquidated in #defi lending protocols today ?

source: @LoanScan_io pic.twitter.com/VMNrEo2TcA

— defiprime (@defiprime) February 26, 2020

One such example is the excessive liquidation of collateral on these DeFi products, as $2 million USD worth of collateral on lending DeFi platforms was liquidated according to data from LoanScan. With the market sentiments heavily tilting to the ETH/USD bears favor, and DeFi products not impacting the market, a test at $200 USD is plausible if bulls do not maintain the $230 resistance mark.