Arbitrum Price: Why is ARB Price Falling? – Crypto News

Recently, Offchain Labs has effectively implemented the Atlas upgrade in the Arbitrum ecosystem to reduce transaction fees for Arbitrum network users. This was achieved by implementing blobs, a new transaction type introduced in the recent Dencun upgrade. Despite this network improvement, Arbitrum (ARB) has been painting its performance chart red because of its declining value. The token has experienced a drop in its price by 24.4% over the past 30 days and 24.6% in the last 7days. Amid the crypto market turbulence, let’s find out exactly the cause of this bearish trend for Arbitrum price. 

Arbitrum Price Market Performance

Arbitrum’s price dropped by 9.14% to $1.54 today. However, there has been a significant amount of trading activity for the token. In the past 24 hours, its trading volume increased by 34.35% to $1 billion. The market capitalization for ARB also rose by 87.42% to $4 billion, making it one of the top 30 cryptocurrencies, according to CoinMarketCap. There are currently 2.6 billion ARB coins in circulation. The token’s all-time high was $2.40 on January 12, 2024, which is 35% higher than the current price.

Top Reasons Arbitrum Price is Falling

Various factors played a role in pushing down ARB price as discussed below. 

1. Arbitrum’s  Unlocked Tokens

Arbitrum recently unlocked around 2.69 billion tokens with the intention of distributing them to its team, advisors, and investors. Out of the 1.76 billion tokens allocated to investors, 11% were given out through airdrops. The project carried out a “Cliff Unlock,” where the tokens were issued simultaneously. This event has caused a lot of activity in the market, with forecasts that numerous holders would engage in short selling the token. 

After the tokens were unlocked, there was a noticeable increase in the number of ARB tokens being sent to exchanges. Investors who received the Arbitrum token airdrops quickly lined up to sell their holdings and make profits. Certain individuals within the community went as far as sharing on social networking platforms that they had disposed of their ARB.

The big holders of ARB, also known as whales, wasted no time in transferring their digital assets to different cryptocurrency exchanges. This indicates that there may be potential shifts in the market and changes in investor sentiment.

According to Spotonchain, 8.95 million ARB tokens worth $16.14 million were deposited to Binance by six wallet addresses that received airdropped tokens from vesting contracts. These wallets also hold an additional 32.95 million ARB tokens worth over $56 million. This could potentially increase selling pressure on the L2 token as these wallets transfer their holdings to exchanges. 

The $ARB price dropped 11% (12H) amid a market downtime and a major unlock!

In the past 12 hours, 6 wallets, which just received tokens from vesting contracts, have deposited 8.95M $ARB ($16.4M) to #Binance.

They still hold 32.95M $ARB ($56.7M) and may deposit out more tokens!… pic.twitter.com/165fOuMpvh

— Spot On Chain (@spotonchain) March 17, 2024

Lookonchain, a blockchain analytics firm also observed a significant change in behavior among major the Layer-2 (L2) token holders, with 11 whales collectively moving 34 million ARB tokens valued at nearly $57 million to exchanges after the unlock event. This suggests a possible bearish market sentiment.

The massive token unlock event caused a decline in the price of ARB. This is a common occurrence for assets, as the unlock leads to an increase in the circulating supply. Investors who received the airdropped tokens ended up selling them, which created selling pressure and drove the asset’s price lower. Following the token unlock and the subsequent mass sell-off by airdrop recipients including team members and initial investors, who sought to make profits, the ARB price crumbled. As of now, the ARB price is $1.54, resulting in nearly 24.6% losses in the past week. It remains to be seen whether the token will recover from this recent decline.

2. Overall crypto market performance

The global crypto market has been crashing with a market cap of $2.42T, a 6.84% decrease over the last day. The current drop in cryptocurrency prices is not exclusive to Arbitrum. In recent days, many prominent cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum have experienced substantial declines.

For example, Bitcoin has dropped more than 11% in value within one week, falling from a high of $73,794 to $$64,442.22  in the latest update.

In the same timeframe, Ethereum also experienced a decrease of over 16.68%, falling from $4,095 to $3,351. These two digital currencies have been at the forefront of the market’s downturn after a period of significant growth in the past few weeks.

Arbitrum Future : What is the Way Forward for ARB?

While the price has already dropped by 23.42% due to the unlocked tokens, holders may not see relief in the near future. Token Unlocks reports that Arbitrum plans to release an additional 92.65 million tokens on April 16. These tokens have a value of approximately $157 million based on current market prices and will be distributed in one go to the Arbitrum team, its advisors, and investors. 

The future release could have a greater influence on the token’s value and market behavior, adding to the uncertainty about Arbitrum’s tokenomics and market success. The future direction of ARB remains uncertain, with investors closely monitoring developments for potential recovery.