Ethereum drops under $2,000 as derivatives reposition and DeFi lending cools
ETH slipped below $2,000 over the past 24 hours for the first time since early 2025, trading at $1,972.82 after a 13.4% decline over the past month. The move coincided with $241M in long liquidations and rising derivatives activity, with open interest cited at $12.5B and $32.69B from separate datasets. DeFi metrics also weakened, including Aave loans at $8B (down 14% in a month) and Ethereum-based DeFi holdings at $41.78B versus over $91B in August 2025.