Ether fell below the $2,000 level on Thursday as selling pressure intensified, even as activity in the derivatives market surged to record highs — a divergence that points to increasingly bearish positioning.
The token has been under sustained pressure amid broader risk aversion across crypto markets. ETH declined nearly 8% over the past week and more than 5% in the last 24 hours, marking its first break below $2,000 since late March, according to CoinDesk data.
Market sentiment toward ether appears to be weakening. Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, noted that investor interest has been fading as the asset struggles to generate compelling returns relative to rising bond yields. He added that Bitmine — one of the few consistent buyers — has signaled a slowdown in accumulation.
Despite the price decline, activity in ether futures continues to expand. Open interest has climbed for three consecutive sessions, reaching a record 16.39 million ETH, equivalent to roughly $32.5 billion in notional value, according to Coinglass. The increase suggests growing participation in leveraged trading.
However, the combination of record-high open interest, declining spot prices, and a negative seven-day open interest-adjusted cumulative volume delta (CVD) indicates that the flow is dominated by aggressive sellers. A negative CVD typically reflects traders executing bearish bets through market orders, rather than passively providing liquidity.
The weakness is also evident in institutional flows. U.S.-listed spot Ether ETFs have recorded $401 million in net outflows so far this month, reversing April’s $354 million in inflows, based on SoSoValue data.
Sentiment has been further weighed down by developments within the Ethereum ecosystem. The Ethereum Foundation has seen notable departures, including key contributors Carl Beekhuizen and Julian Ma, raising concerns about the project’s long-term direction.
“The original vision no longer appears to resonate with some of its early supporters,” Thielen said, pointing to the exits as a signal of shifting confidence.
The shift in outlook is not limited to insiders. Prominent voices in the crypto space are also reassessing ether’s investment case. David Hoffman, co-founder of Bankless, recently disclosed that he has exited his ETH position, arguing that the long-standing narrative of “ETH as money” may have largely run its course.
At the core of the debate is whether Ethereum’s dominance in areas such as decentralized finance and tokenization is translating into sustained value for its native token.
“Ethereum remains structurally important, but the market is questioning how that strength accrues to ETH,” Web3 research firm House of Chimera said in a recent post on X.
While the network continues to lead in developer activity — with millions of meaningful GitHub contributions — analysts note that market sentiment and price performance can diverge significantly from underlying ecosystem growth.
