ENA, the native token of the Ethereum-based industrial dollar protocol Ethena, was the biggest loser in the market over the past 24 hours. The altcoin is trading at $0.42, down more than 10% in the period.
The price drop comes when one of the largest bettors on ENA unstakes all of his holdings and sends them to the cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
ENA Whale Triggers Sell-Off Wave
During early Asian trading hours on February 11, a large Ethena whale, identified as wallet 0x8f9, unstakenly unstaken all of his holdings of 17.875 million ENA (worth $8.78 million) and deposited them into Binance.
According to on-chain investigator Spotonchain, this whale had accumulated ENA at an average purchase price of $1,167, mostly during price peaks. With the altcoin currently trading at $0.43, selling at this level would result in a significant loss for the whale.
When whales move large amounts of their tokens to exchanges, it signals a potential sell-off, which increases supply in the market and drives prices down. This can lead to bearish sentiment among traders, leading to increased volatility and further price declines.
The negative funding rate currently following ENA reflects this bearish sentiment. According to Coinglass, this is at -0.012%.
Financing rates are periodic payments between long and short traders in perpetual futures contracts. This ensures that the underlying contract price is in line with its spot price.
When an asset’s funding ratio turns negative, it indicates that short positions are dominant. This means that traders are paying to stay short, which can indicate strong bearish sentiment but also increases the risk of a short squeeze if sentiment changes.
ENA Price Prediction: Will Selling Pressure Bring It Down?
ENA is currently trading at a three-month low of $0.42, facing increasing selling pressure. If whale 0x8f9 sells 17.875 million ENA on Binance, the lack of sufficient demand from the buying side could push the price down further, potentially breaking the $0.41 barrier and sliding towards $0.31.
However, increased public demand for ENA could absorb the selling pressure, counteracting the potential whale exit. In a bullish scenario, increased buying momentum could push the token price to $0.51.
