"Ethereum's Ethena: Whale's 18M ENA Move to Binance Sparks Sell-Off, Token Plunges 10%"

Ethereum-based synthetic dollar protocol Ethena has experienced a significant setback as a large whale moves 18 million ENA tokens to Binance, the leading cryptocurrency exchange. The native token of Ethena, ENA, has been the market's top loser over the past 24 hours, trading at $0.42 and plunging over 10% during that period.

On February 11, during the early Asian trading hours, a major Ethena whale, identified as wallet 0x8f9, unstaked its entire holding of 17.875 million ENA, valued at $8.78 million, and deposited it to Binance. This action signals a potential sell-off, increasing market supply and lowering prices, which can trigger bearish sentiment among traders and lead to heightened volatility and further price declines.

The negative funding rate that currently trails ENA reflects this bearish sentiment. According to Coinglass, the funding rate is at -0.012%. Funding rates are periodic payments between long and short traders in perpetual futures contracts, ensuring that the asset's contract price aligns with its spot price. When an asset's funding rate turns negative, it indicates that short positions are dominant, which can signal strong bearish sentiment but also increase the risk of a short squeeze if sentiment shifts.

ENA is currently trading at a three-month low of $0.42, facing heightened selling pressure. If whale 0x8f9 offloads its 17.875 million ENA on Binance, the lack of sufficient buy-side demand could drive the price further down, potentially breaking below $0.41 and sliding toward $0.31. However, a surge in overall demand for ENA could absorb the selling pressure, counteracting the whale's potential exit. In a bullish scenario, increased buying momentum could push the token's price to $0.51.