- Ethereum prices bearish and likely to sink below $135
- Hackers wreak havoc at Dragon EX, steal user funds
- Transaction volumes low but could surge as bears retest key support levels
Another exchange, Dragon EX, has been breached and user fund stolen demonstrating why it is imperative for assets to be stored at cold wallets away from exchanges. Meanwhile, Ethereum (ETH) is bearish and dropping towards $135.
Ethereum Price Analysis
Fundamentals
Unfortunately, Dragon EX, an established Singaporean cryptocurrency exchange, is the latest hack victim after an undisclosed amount of ETH was stolen on Sunday, according to a recent announcement from the exchange’s Telegram channel. The breach was first noted on Mar 24 forcing the exchange to pull down their services under the guise of system maintenance:
“Dragon Ex is still working on system maintenance due to data exception during which all trading and deposit and withdrawal will be temporally delayed to open until March 25th 18:00.”
However, it took them an extra day before finally admitting of the reputation damaging breach. The team is working with authorities in four countries including Thailand and Hong Kong and has managed to recover some of the stolen funds:
“We’re assisting policemen to do investigation. All platform services will be closed, and the accurate assets loss recovery situation will be announced in a week. For the loss caused to our users, Dragon Ex will take responsibility no matter what.”
Candlestick Arrangement
At the time of press, Ethereum (ETH) is down 3.5 percent from last week’s close and likely to break below $135, invalidating our trade plan. Although there is limited support for bulls, our bullish overview will hold as long as prices are trending above $130 or Mar 5 lows.
If not and prices melt-down in a trend continuation phase confirming losses of Feb 24, the projection of our previous ETH/USD trade plan will hold. In that case, bears may drive prices below $100 towards Dec 2018 lows of $70.
Losses will be magnified if the current BB squeeze is a bear breakout resulting in ETH bear bars banding along the lower BB, away from the middle BB signaling bears and mid-Nov 2018 resumption of sellers.
On the reverse side, if ETH bulls find support anywhere between $130-35 with decent volumes, prices may snap back to bullish catalyzing participation that may drive prices back to $150 and even Dec 2018 highs of $170.
Technical Indicators
Like Bitcoin, ETH prices are sliding lower. Regardless, bears have successfully reversed gains of Mar 15-16 albeit with low volumes averaging 180k or above. For trend continuation, a bull bar with high volumes above 180k must print in line with gains of Mar 15-16. If not and a bear bar prints driving prices below $135, ETH may end up sliding to $100 or worse $70.
Chart courtesy of Trading View