Ether falls below $2,000 even as futures open interest climbs to an all-time high of 16 million ETH

Ether slid below the $2,000 mark on Thursday as selling pressure accelerated, even as derivatives activity surged — a divergence that signals growing bearish positioning in the market.

The cryptocurrency has come under pressure amid a broader risk-off environment, falling nearly 8% over the past week and more than 5% in the last 24 hours. The drop marks ETH’s first move below $2,000 since late March, according to CoinDesk data.

Market sentiment appears to be weakening as investors reassess ether’s value proposition. Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, said demand has been fading, pointing to relatively unattractive staking yields in a higher interest-rate environment. He also noted that Bitmine, a key buyer, is expected to slow its pace of accumulation.

In contrast to the spot market decline, activity in ether futures continues to expand. Open interest has increased for three consecutive days, reaching a record 16.39 million ETH — roughly $32.5 billion in notional terms — according to Coinglass. The rise reflects heightened participation in leveraged trading.

However, the surge in open interest alongside falling prices and a negative seven-day open interest-adjusted cumulative volume delta (CVD) suggests that the flow is dominated by aggressive short positions. A negative CVD indicates that traders are actively placing bearish bets through market orders.

Institutional flows reinforce the negative trend. U.S.-listed spot Ether ETFs have seen $401 million in net outflows so far this month, reversing April’s $354 million in inflows, based on SoSoValue data.

Sentiment has also been dented by internal developments within the Ethereum ecosystem. The Ethereum Foundation has recently seen high-profile departures, including contributors Carl Beekhuizen and Julian Ma, raising concerns about the project’s direction.

Thielen said these exits may reflect waning confidence among early supporters, suggesting that Ethereum’s original vision is losing traction with parts of the community.

The shift extends beyond insiders. David Hoffman, co-founder of Bankless, recently revealed he has sold his ETH holdings, arguing that the long-standing narrative of “ETH as money” may have largely played out.

At the same time, analysts are questioning how effectively Ethereum’s dominance in sectors like decentralized finance and tokenization translates into value for ETH itself.

“Ethereum’s infrastructure remains strong, but the market is increasingly uncertain about how that strength accrues to the token,” Web3 research firm House of Chimera said in a post on X.

While Ethereum continues to lead in developer activity, with millions of GitHub contributions, analysts note that price performance and sentiment can diverge sharply from underlying network growth.

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