Ether Steadies Near $2,000 After $540 Million Sell Wave Hits Market

TLDR

Table of Contents

Ether rose 0.43% after $540 million moved to Binance triggered oversold conditions.
DOGE fell 10% in 24 hours while ZRO dropped 34% over five days.
BTC trades near $68,700 with altcoins losing ground in the early week.
Gold at $5,000 outperforms silver and crypto despite January peak decline.

Ether steadied near $2,000 on Monday after a $540 million sell-off by a single trader sparked oversold conditions. While most altcoins continued to fall, Ether’s rebound shows resilience, even as crypto markets remain under pressure and gold outperforms both silver and digital assets.

Ether Rebounds After Massive Sell Wave

Ether (ETH) is showing resilience after a major sell-off over the weekend. The cryptocurrency climbed 0.43% to $1,970 on Monday. Onchain data indicates that a wallet linked to trader Garrett Jin deposited $540 million worth of ETH to Binance. This large transfer caused a spike in sell volume.

Yesterday morning, @GarrettBullish deposited 5000 $BTC ($348m) to @binance. In the evening, he deposited 261,024 $ETH ($543m) into @binance as well.
Credit to @AggrTradeApp for allowing visualization of this dumpage so well to monitor real time orderflow on futures & spot for… https://t.co/UN5BGe3Qoz pic.twitter.com/uJnsRjqAad
— CryptoCondom (@crypto_condom) February 15, 2026

The sudden sell pressure created oversold conditions for Ether, helping the token recover as the week began. Other altcoins did not see similar gains. Analysts note that this divergence shows Ether’s ability to outperform wider crypto markets despite market pressure.

Altcoins Slide While Ether Outperforms

Other cryptocurrencies lagged behind Ether as markets opened Monday. DOGE fell 10% in 24 hours and ZRO dropped 34% over five days. HYPE, ZEC, and XMR all lost more than 3% during the same period.

The altcoin-dominated CoinDesk 80 Index (CD80) fell 0.17%, while the Bitcoin-heavy CoinDesk 5 Index (CD5) rose 0.38%. The data shows that Ether is moving independently from lower-performing altcoins.

Market Positioning and Futures Trends

The crypto futures market saw outflows over the weekend. Total notional open interest dropped to $98 billion. Bitcoin and Ether futures fell by 1% and 2.7% respectively. XRP, DOGE, SUI, and ADA futures fell by more than 6%.

In contrast, gold token XAUT futures rose 8%, showing capital movement toward traditional assets. Ether’s 30-day implied volatility has declined from earlier highs near 100% annualized, suggesting reduced risk pricing. The volatility gap between Ether and Bitcoin futures is widening, indicating expectations for larger Ether swings.

Derivatives and Market Signals

Funding rates for several altcoins, including XRP, TRX, DOGE, and SOL, remain negative. This indicates traders prefer bearish positions. Analysts note that if markets stay resilient, these positions may trigger short squeezes.

SOL futures on CME show an annualized premium near zero, while BTC and ETH futures trade with small premiums. On Deribit, one trader paid $3 million for a $75,000 BTC call option, signaling bullish bets. However, put options across both BTC and ETH remain pricier than calls, reflecting ongoing caution.