According to the latest on-chain data, investors have been excessively betting on the Bitcoin price in recent weeks, leading to its overall struggles.

Longs Vs Shorts Imbalance — How This Induced Price Crash

In a November 22 post on social media platform X, Alphractal CEO and founder Joao Wedson revealed the underlying dynamics behind Bitcoin’s recent unchecked fall. In deciphering this downward trend, the crypto pundit evaluated the Estimated Long/Short Positions metric, which estimates how much of the Open Interest across exchanges is dedicated to long positions relative to short positions.

Wedson reported that, across 19 exchanges, there are about 71,000 BTC positioned in longs, while a relatively smaller amount of BTC (27,900) is dedicated to shorts. While this observation does not include data from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the discrepancy between longs and shorts remains unusually large.

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This imbalance is significant because when there are clusters of long positions at similar price levels, the market tends to lean into a more fragile state. Moderate pullbacks beneath these clusters often lead to a cascade of forced liquidations (known as a long squeeze) — an event which could in turn push prices further south.

Notably, Wedson pointed out that traders must have been convinced that $100,000 was Bitcoin’s price bottom — a speculation that soon became null after its failure. Afterwards, $90,000 came into focus, with another series of liquidations following suit. At the moment, $84,000 seems to be the price majority of Bitcoin’s speculative traders target as the new price bottom.

These liquidation events that took place after the $100,000 and $90,000 supports were breached provided more buy-side liquidity for the Bitcoin price to topple. At the same time, most significant short positions have been closed off, making it difficult for a more defined price recovery to take place, as there is barely any sell-side liquidity to send the Bitcoin price to the upside.

For Bitcoin to recover, Wedson explained that there needs to be a significant decrease in long positioning, while short exposure goes on the rise.

Watch Out For $81,250 — Analyst

In another post on X, technical analyst Ali Martinez noted that Bitcoin’s 2-year moving average, which stands at approximately $81,250, is an important landmark for the future trajectory of the flagship cryptocurrency.

The analyst explained that historical failures of the 730-day SMA have often marked the beginnings of bear markets. Thus, in the scenario where the Bitcoin price slips past its current 2-year average price, we could be witnessing the start of a long bearish cycle

As of press time, Bitcoin holds a valuation of $86,251, reflecting an over 3% price jump in the past 24 hours.

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Featured image from iStock, chart from TradingView

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An Asian Ethereum DAT project that was on the way has been cancelled after the bearish price trajectory, as reported by Wu Blockchain.

Ethereum DAT Project By Leading Asian Whales Has Been Canned

Last month, Bloomberg reported that some influential investors in Asia were gearing up to launch an Ethereum trust. The group involved the likes of Li Lin, founder of Huobi cryptocurrency exchange, Shen Bo, co-founder of Fenbushi Capital, and Xiao Feng, chairman and CEO of HashKey Group.

At the time, the investors were in talks to acquire a NASDAQ-listed entity to facilitate the digital-asset treasury (DAT) structure, with the project already boasting a backing of $1 billion.

According to a report from Wu Blockchain, however, that project has now been cancelled. “The US$1 billion Ethereum DAT proposed by leading Asian crypto investors has been shelved, and the committed capital has been returned,” wrote Wu Blockchain.

Of the $1 billion backing, $200 million came from investment firm Avenir Capital alone, of which Huobi’s Li is a chairman. Another $500 million was provided by Asian institutional investors like HongShan Capital Group.

Popularized by Michael Saylor’s Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), a DAT company is a public entity that makes a digital-asset reserve its main business. Earlier, firms mostly focused on using Bitcoin in this type of strategy, but 2025 has seen a push into altcoins like Ethereum and Solana.

BitMine, which is currently the largest ETH DAT and second-largest overall after Strategy, adopted its ETH reserve strategy in June of this year. According to a Monday press release, the company holds 3,559,879 tokens, bought for a total of $11.1 billion.

Unlike BitMine, the Asia-led DAT project appears to have been halted before it could launch. “Sources said the plan was halted mainly due to the market downturn following the sharp October 11 sell-off,” revealed Wu Blockchain.

Ethereum has been in freefall alongside the wider cryptocurrency sector since this crash, with its price being down over 38% compared to its October high. As a result, BitMine’s holdings have gone underwater. At the current exchange rate, its holdings are valued at $10.3 billion, roughly 7% below cost basis.

The ETH network as a whole has its average cost basis (“Realized Price“) located at $2,316, as CryptoQuant community analyst Maartunn has pointed out in an X post.

The trend in the ETH Realized Price over the last few years | Source: @JA_Maartun on X

Given this, the average investor is still in a profit of about 24%. Earlier, when Ethereum was trading around its high, profitability reached an extreme level. So compared to that, there has been a bit of a cooldown. “Momentum is cooling off as the market takes a breather,” noted Maartunn.

ETH Price

Ethereum has suffered another 5% drop in the past day that has sent its price to $2,880.

ETH has been facing bearish momentum in recent days | Source: ETHUSDT on TradingView

Featured image from Dall-E, CryptoQuant.com, chart from TradingView.com

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