Ethereum drops 7% in massive sell-off, but will USDT save ETH?

Key Takeaways

How did the market shakeout hit Ethereum?

Ethereum dumped 7% on the week vs. Bitcoin’s smaller move. Meanwhile, Tether’s $1 billion USDT injection could fuel a dip buy or another squeeze.

What’s BitMine’s strategy amid this volatility?

BitMine added 264k ETH (over 2% of the network) and raised $1.28 billion via shares and warrants to bulk up its ETH stack.

The 22nd of September delivered a brutal gut check for the crypto market.

With $1.65 billion in longs liquidated, the market logged the largest deleveraging flush of 2025. Bitcoin [BTC] accounted for $263.4 million of that, with longs dominating 93.7% of the blow-ups.

Ethereum [ETH], however, took the brunt of the hit, seeing $375 million in total liquidations. The fallout? ETH dumped 7% on the week (roughly 3x BTC’s move) while the ETH/BTC ratio hit the month’s steepest dip.

Source: TradingView (ETH/BTC)

Against this backdrop, Tether injected a fresh $1 billion USDT on Ethereum.

Strategically, the timing couldn’t have been better. The leverage unwind drained $180 billion across crypto, with ETH bleeding $44 billion. In this setup, fresh liquidity could either catch the dip or trigger another squeeze.

Historically, when Ethereum dumps harder than Bitcoin, it often snaps back stronger. Could this fresh liquidity be setting up the same move, with risk-on flows rotating back into ETH while BTC trails?