Ether Futures Open Interest Climbs as Altcoins Rally and Traders Bet on Continued Gains
The crypto market saw widespread gains on Wednesday, led by a strong performance in ether (ETH) and select altcoins, as traders positioned for further upside across derivatives markets.
Tokens such as OKB, PUMP, BNSOL, JITOSOL, and SOL posted double-digit increases, while ether surged toward its all-time high, sparking renewed risk appetite.
“Bitcoin rose just 0.4% on the day and is still 2% below its price a month ago,” said Alex Kuptsikevich, chief market analyst at FxPro. “This suggests capital is rotating into altcoins, rather than a broad market reversal. Altcoin rallies and fresh highs in equities like the S&P 500 and Nikkei 225 are supporting risk-on sentiment.”
Derivatives Show Strong Bullish Setup
Open interest in CME-listed ether futures jumped to 1.85 million ETH, up from 1.5 million ETH a week earlier. The three-month annualized basis rate exceeded 10%, pointing to bullish positioning. By comparison, CME bitcoin futures held a basis near 7.5%.
Despite the gains, the broader altcoin market doesn’t appear overheated. Offshore perpetual funding rates for top tokens remain near 10% annualized, signaling a balanced market.
Elsewhere, Monero (XMR) saw open interest hit its highest level since December, even as its price dropped to a four-month low of $245—suggesting traders were shorting the move.
On Deribit, ether call options with $5,000+ strike prices saw strong demand. Calls maintained a premium over puts across all maturities. Yet implied volatility held steady: ETH DVOL remained anchored around 70%, while BTC volatility was similarly rangebound. OTC activity on Paradigm showed demand for high-strike BTC calls, especially at $160,000.
Key Token Headlines
- OKB soared to an all-time high of $142, rallying 200% after OKX announced a permanent supply reduction to 21 million tokens—one of its most aggressive burns to date. The rally was further fueled by a major infrastructure upgrade to its Polygon-powered X Layer chain, which now supports 5,000 TPS, near-zero gas fees, and gasless USDT withdrawals. As part of the update, OKX will shut down OKTChain, halt OKT trading on Aug. 13, and begin converting OKT balances into OKB from Aug. 15.
- Eden Network, once a prominent player in MEV optimization, announced it will shut down all services—including Eden RPC and Bundles—citing unsustainable competition in the post-Merge ecosystem. The platform, launched in 2021 to boost miner/validator revenues, lost market share as dominance consolidated among fewer relay operators.
- FARTCOIN climbed 17%, with whale wallets holding over $1M worth of the token increasing their supply by 2%. “Smart money” addresses grew their holdings by 3%, while technical indicators like MACD remained bullish. A breakout above $1.74 is possible if momentum holds, with support near $0.74.
