Ether tests $1,200 but bears better positioned for $1.13B options expiry on Nov. 25
No matter if one analyzes Ether's (ETH) longer-term or weekly time frame, there is little hope for bulls. Besides the negative 69% year-to-date performance, a descending channel has been pressuring the ETH price while offering resistance at $1,200.
Regulatory uncertainty continues to weigh down the sector. For example, Starling, a digital bank based in the United Kingdom, announced on Nov. 22 that it would no longer allow customers to send or receive money from digital asset exchanges or merchants. The bank described cryptocurrencies as "high risk and heavily used for criminal purposes."
Other concerning news for the Ethereum ecosystem involved the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform AAVE, which suffered a short-seller attack on Nov. 22 aimed to profit from under-collateralized loans.
Curiously, a similar exploit happened on the Mango Markets DeFi application in October. Albeit not a direct attack on the Ethereum network, the attacker has shown critical flaws in some major decentralized collateral lending applications.
Furthermore, the Singapore-based cryptocurrency lender Hodlnaut is reportedly facing a police probe over allegations of cheating and fraud. The issues started on Aug. 8 after the lending firm cited a liquidity crisis and suspended withdrawals on the platform.
Lastly, on Nov. 22, United States senator Elizabeth Warren correlated the demise of the FTX exchange to subprime mortgages of 2008 and penny stocks used for pump-and-dump schemes. Warren said the FTX collapse should be a "wake-up call" to regulators to enforce laws on the crypto industry.
That is why the $1.13 billion Ether monthly options expiry on Nov. 25 will put a lot of price pressure on the bulls, even though ETH posted 11% gains between Nov.
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