ETH Traders Favor Like Bearish Data Spooks Position Investors
Main Receptors:
ETH futures liquidity reached $224 million after a 9% price drop, while the network's onchain activity fell to a 12-month low.
ETH's high correlation with Bitcoin and high exchange rate withdrawals suggest further downside risk for Ether's price.
Ether (ETH) fell to $1,800 on Tuesday, wiping out $224 million in bullish positions in 48 hours. This 14% price slide in the last 10 days has made traders defensive. Options and futures data, sluggish onchain activity and outflows from Ether spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) all point to a shaky floor at $1,800.
Things changed quickly after the put (sell) and call (buy) options were sought from Monday to Saturday. The ETH call-to-call volume premium jumped to 2.2x, indicating a sudden surge to bearish resistance. While some may sell to bet on a rise in prices, the broader market appears to be encouraging more volatility.
Options delta skew (call-to-call) settled at 18% on Tuesday, meaning that earnings were trading at a clear premium. This tumultuous demand shows that fencing is now a priority. There is a real lack of confidence here, even with ETH sitting just 63% below its all-time high. Much of this frustration comes down to some pretty poor onchain numbers.
The total value locked on Ethereum (TVL) has dropped to $51 billion, the lowest level seen since May 2025. Hitting decentralized applications (DApps) with a small amount of deposits, the network's payouts have taken in around $13.7 million in the last 30 days. This is a far cry from the $33 million average seen at the end of 2025. Traders worry that demand for ETH data processing will not return anytime soon.
Although it was expected, the recent $7 million ETH sale associated with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin did not help the sentiment. Ethereum's founder pledged ETH 16,384 in January to support his private holdings of privacy-focused technologies, open-source hardware, and secure, verifiable software systems. Still, the optics of the move added another layer of bearish pressure to an already shaky week.
The outflows from Ether ETFs further soured investor sentiment. Often this kind of activity means that institutional players are losing interest.
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Since February 11, US-listed Ether ETFs have seen net outflows of $405 million, bringing total assets under management down to $12.4 billion. This change occurred as the price of gold rose above $5,150. According to gold.org, at the end of February 20, gold ETFs took in $822 million.
Ether's weak onchain and derivative data is not a guaranteed death sentence. However, the fact that whales and market makers seem to be favoring more downside fueled bearish sentiment. Ether's price has been pegged to Bitcoin (BTC) as the asset's 20-day correlation has remained above 95% for the past three weeks.
ETH's drop to $1,800 has created a small round, with traders still speculating on what is driving this crypto bear market. That uncertainty is forcing traders to sell at a loss, and the situation may not change as professional traders show fear. Until those derivatives metrics stabilize, the possibility of ETH sliding further is still on the table.
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