Hackers accelerate ETH decline following $27 million dump, bearish macroeconomic factors

• Ethereum saw declines on Friday following dumps from hacker-related wallets.
• The wallets are reportedly connected to recent scam attacks on Coinbase users, leading to $46 million of stolen funds.
• A jump in February PCE inflation data also escalated ETH losses.

Ethereum (ETH) declined below $2,000 on Friday following a series of hacks traced to accounts of crypto exchange Coinbase users, which caused a loss of $36 million. The hackers bridged the tokens to Ether through ThorChain and dumped 14,064 ETH, worth $27.5 million. Additionally, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis reported a rise in the core Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) price Index in February, leading to a market-wide decline among cryptocurrencies.

ETH falls below $2,000 as hackers stir quick sell-offs

Ethereum plunged 6% on Friday after malicious actors dumped several ETH tokens in a series of transactions. Some of the transactions were traced to recent hacked accounts on Coinbase, where a user was defrauded of 400.09 Bitcoin (BTC), worth $34.9 million, according to on-chain investigator ZachXBT. 

ZachXBT claimed that the heist was part of a larger series of hacks on the exchange, resulting in $46 million of stolen funds. The funds from the theft were bridged from Bitcoin to Ethereum via bridges Thorchain and Chainflip — popularly used by hacker groups such as the North Korean Lazarus Group — and swapped for the DAI stablecoin.

Hackers ended up dumping 14,064 ETH, worth $27.5 million for DAI, stirring panic selling among investors.

Additionally, February's Core PCE inflation data jumped to 2.8% YoY, surpassing market expectations of 2.7%. The PCE data and recent selling activity from hackers sparked panic among investors, exacerbating ETH losses, with derivatives traders suffering $136.52 million in liquidations in the past 24 hours, per Coinglass data.

The top altcoin has declined below the $2,000 psychological level, trading at $1,890 at publication time.