The price of Ethereum (ETH) has slipped again below $2,000. This time, however, it did so quite quickly, and with a trajectory that for now seems destined to continue. 

Until yesterday, the $2,000 seemed to hold, but today it first suddenly returned to just over $1,900, with an ugly -4.6% in a quarter of an hour, and then not only did it fail to bounce back but it ended up falling even to $1,880.

In general, such sudden drops are due to forced liquidations of leveraged positions, and for this reason, they tend to be short-lived and followed by a rebound. This time, however, there doesn’t seem to have been any rebound. 

There is no specific reason regarding Ethereum that has caused this sudden price drop of ETH.

It seems, however, that it was triggered by a decline in Bitcoin.

Until yesterday, the price of Bitcoin had remained above $86,000, more or less around $87,000, but last night before the drop of ETH, it fell below $86,000 in about half an hour. The start of the BTC price drop preceded that of ETH by about a good ten minutes. 

All this has resulted in a general decline in the crypto markets, with some exceptions, so much so that the overall market capitalization has fallen from 2.790 trillion dollars to 2.710.

Furthermore, already yesterday there was a decline, given that Bitcoin was at almost $88,000, Ethereum at $2,030, and the crypto market capitalization at $2.810 trillion dollars.

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Since it seems to be the price of Bitcoin that influences this dynamic, it is necessary to focus on its trend. 

From Monday to Wednesday, it had tried to stay above $88,000, but without success. If it had managed, the mini descending trend of yesterday and today probably would not have been triggered. 

The problem is that the rise of both the Dollar Index and the price of gold indicates a new small escape from risk-on, and this means a clear reduction in buying pressure even on BTC.

Note that even the selling pressure is low, but with such low buying pressure and moreover decreasing, the price still cannot do anything but go down. 

To all this must be added that the rising trend of the gold price has been going on for over three months now, and it does not seem to want to stop, given that today it has marked its new all-time high at over $3,080 per ounce. 

The Dollar Index, on the other hand, is still far from the peaks of January, but it seems to have interrupted the declining phase that lasted from January 11 to March 18, although with some partial intermediate interruptions. 

All this suggests that the downward trend of yesterday and today of Bitcoin might not have ended yet, and that this could also drag Ethereum along. 

Currently, there are not many reliable positive forecasts for Ethereum circulating. 

It should not be forgotten that already on March 11th it had dropped to $1,800, and since it has not really managed to recover since then, there also seems to be the risk that it could even drop further below this threshold. 

The situation changes, however, in the medium/long term, because it is difficult for this descending phase to continue for a long time. 

To tell the truth, it is not even possible to completely rule out this last hypothesis, but if the American markets were to recover in the coming weeks and months, the price of gold could start to fall, and the Dollar Index could start to decline again, thus favoring a return of interest and capital towards risk-on. 

Most likely, Bitcoin will still dominate the crypto markets at this stage, as we are in the middle of Bitcoin season, according to the altseason index of CMC, and this situation shows no signs of ending.

The fact is that only just under four months ago the price of Ethereum was over $4,000, and especially it was at $2,400 before Trump’s electoral victory, and early November, and such data clearly highlight how much it is suffering at this moment. 

However, often the crypto markets see only Bitcoin as the protagonist during difficult times, except for rare exceptions, and the current situation from this point of view is no exception. 

In the event that the crypto market recovers, thanks to Bitcoin, the price of Ethereum should also benefit.