VeChain’s native token, VET, has struggled to maintain upward momentum after failing to break through a key technical level this week.
The cryptocurrency, ranked at position 62 by market capitalisation, fell 3.77% to $0.0243 in the past 24 hours, underperforming the broader crypto market.
Despite solid progress in staking adoption and growing institutional interest, short-term traders appear to be taking profits, fueling a wave of sell-offs.
Market pullback weighs on VeChain
The broader crypto market has faced turbulence, with total capitalisation dropping 3.35% to $3.79 trillion and liquidity dipping 1.62% as investors shifted capital into Bitcoin (BTC), leaving altcoins under pressure.
As a result, while VeChain’s trading volume climbed nearly 17% to $74.6 million, the increased volume reflected panic-driven selling rather than fresh accumulation.
Notably, investor sentiment has cooled, with the Crypto Fear & Greed Index holding at neutral levels while the Altcoin Season Index shows 57% of participants now prefer BTC over alternatives.
This rotation has placed additional strain on mid-cap assets like VeChain, which remain highly correlated to market-wide shifts.
Resistance rejection sparks selling pressure
Earlier, Vechain (VET) had rallied to an intraday high of $0.02585, according to Coinglass, briefly breaking through the resistance at the $0.02566 Fibonacci retracement level, though this breakout proved short-lived.
The failure triggered a sell-off that pushed prices below short-term moving averages.
On the four-hour chart, the EMA20 has also crossed beneath the EMA50, signalling a bearish turn, while the Relative Strength Index (RSI) has slipped to around 54, indicating fading buying pressure.
Momentum indicators reinforce the cautious outlook. The MACD histogram, which had turned slightly positive, has begun to flatten, pointing to reduced bullish strength.
VET staking adoption offsets long-term concerns
Even as short-term technicals look fragile, VeChain’s underlying ecosystem continues to show progress.
Since the launch of its StarGate staking program on July 1, more than $140 million in assets have been locked in smart contracts.
The platform’s redesigned staking architecture, powered by the Galactica upgrade, uses non-fungible tokens to record positions, enhancing transparency and composability.
More than 5.8 billion VET have already been locked, and blockchain data confirms that 515,000 VTHO tokens were burned over the past month, reducing overall selling pressure.
Despite this, exchange inflows spiked by 22% on August 28, suggesting that some early stakers took advantage of recent gains to secure profits.
Vechain outlook remains cautious but hopeful
With the VeChain price currently pinned below its 200-day EMA at $0.0265, a decisive break above that point could open the door to a rally toward $0.0338, representing a potential 32% breakout from current levels.
For now, however, the failed breakout above $0.02566 has underscored persistent resistance, with sellers quick to act on signs of weakness.
While fundamentals tied to staking adoption and institutional engagement strengthen the long-term case for VeChain, traders remain wary of near-term volatility.
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