ETH Price Dive: What Happened and What's Next – Reddit Reacts
The Crypto Reckoning: When Rate Hopes Fade, So Does ETH
Ethereum’s price is taking a beating, down roughly 3% to $2,827 today, November 21, 2025. But the daily dip is just a blip compared to the real story: a 15% plunge over the last week. Bitcoin isn’t faring much better, dipping below $87,000—a level we haven’t seen since April—and mirroring Ethereum's ~3% daily and ~13.5% weekly decline. XRP is also feeling the pain, down about 3% to $2.00, and nearly 18% over the week. The broader crypto market has seen almost a billion dollars liquidated in the last 24 hours ($933 million to be precise), with Ethereum accounting for a quarter of that. So what's behind this sudden downturn? Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP Dive as Rate Cut Hopes Fade, Liquidations Near $1 Billion - Yahoo Finance
Interest Rate Reality Bites
The culprit seems to be the shifting sands of interest rate expectations. Remember the widespread anticipation of a December rate cut by the Federal Reserve? That optimism is rapidly evaporating. CME's FedWatch tool now shows only a 37.6% probability of a 25 basis point cut in December. Just a week ago, the odds were essentially a coin flip. This shift is seismic. Polymarket, the prediction market, reinforces this view, showing a 63% likelihood of no change in interest rates. Heather Long at Navy Federal Credit Union calls the September jobs report (119,000 jobs added) a "mixed bag," concluding, "The Fed probably won't cut in December."
This all highlights a crucial point: crypto's recent rally was heavily predicated on the expectation of easier monetary policy. Bitcoin's surge to over $126,000 in early October—a new all-time high—now seems like a distant dream, especially considering it's since fallen by 31%. Jerome Powell's attempts to temper rate cut enthusiasm in late October now look prescient. The market got ahead of itself, and now it's paying the price.
The Illusion of Decoupling
A common narrative in the crypto space is that it's "decoupled" from traditional markets. Supposedly, crypto marches to its own beat, immune to the whims of the stock market or the Fed. The recent price action suggests otherwise. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are also showing losses in excess of 1%. The correlation, while not perfect, is undeniable. When risk appetite diminishes in traditional markets, it tends to evaporate in crypto even faster.
I've looked at hundreds of these market reports, and the speed at which sentiment can shift always surprises me. One week, everyone's a genius riding the wave; the next, they're scrambling for the exits. And this is the part of the report that I find genuinely puzzling: why do so many investors, especially in crypto, seem to forget the fundamental principles of risk management? Are they blinded by the potential for quick gains, or is there a deeper psychological factor at play?
It seems many investors are treating crypto as a "get rich quick" scheme, rather than a long-term investment. This mentality is dangerous and leads to the kind of volatility we're currently witnessing. The herd mentality takes over, and rational decision-making goes out the window.