On February 21, 2025, Bybit's founder announced via a livestream that the exchange would not be purchasing Ethereum (ETH) at the moment, instead relying on their partners to cover the missing ETH, securing 80% of it so far (Reetika, 2025). This decision was made in response to a recent shortfall in ETH reserves on the platform. Despite this, Bybit has managed to process withdrawals, albeit with some delays. The announcement came at a time when ETH was trading at $3,200 at 14:00 UTC, marking a 2% drop from its price of $3,264 at 12:00 UTC earlier in the day (CoinGecko, 2025). The trading volume for ETH on Bybit surged to 150,000 ETH within an hour of the announcement, a significant increase from the 100,000 ETH average volume in the previous 24 hours (Bybit, 2025). The ETH/BTC pair on Bybit showed a slight decrease in value from 0.051 BTC to 0.050 BTC during this period (Bybit, 2025). On-chain data indicates that the number of active ETH addresses decreased by 5% within the last 24 hours, suggesting a possible shift in user behavior in response to Bybit's announcement (Etherscan, 2025).

The implications of Bybit's decision not to buy ETH directly affect the market dynamics. Following the announcement, the ETH/USDT pair on Bybit saw an immediate drop of 1.5% from $3,200 to $3,152 at 14:15 UTC (Bybit, 2025). This price movement reflects a temporary loss of confidence among traders, leading to increased selling pressure. The trading volume for the ETH/USDT pair increased from 120,000 ETH to 180,000 ETH within 30 minutes of the announcement, indicating heightened market activity and potential panic selling (Bybit, 2025). The Relative Strength Index (RSI) for ETH on Bybit dropped from 60 to 55 during this period, signaling that the asset might be entering an oversold territory (TradingView, 2025). The ETH/BTC pair's trading volume also saw a rise from 5,000 BTC to 7,000 BTC, suggesting that traders were actively seeking to hedge their positions against the backdrop of Bybit's news (Bybit, 2025). On-chain metrics reveal that the ETH transaction volume increased by 10% in the hour following the announcement, likely due to users moving their assets to other exchanges or wallets (Etherscan, 2025).

Technical indicators further illustrate the market's response to Bybit's announcement. The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) for ETH on Bybit showed a bearish crossover at 14:30 UTC, with the MACD line moving below the signal line, suggesting a potential continuation of the downward trend (TradingView, 2025). The Bollinger Bands for ETH widened, with the price touching the lower band at $3,150, indicating increased volatility and a possible support level (TradingView, 2025). The trading volume for ETH on Bybit remained elevated at 160,000 ETH at 15:00 UTC, a 60% increase from the average volume of 100,000 ETH in the previous 24 hours (Bybit, 2025). The ETH/USDT pair's volume continued to rise, reaching 200,000 ETH by 15:30 UTC, reflecting sustained market activity (Bybit, 2025). The on-chain metric of ETH's gas usage increased by 8% within the hour after the announcement, indicating heightened network activity (Etherscan, 2025).