Ethereum futures contracts open interest reached an eight-month high of over US$3.1 billion on Binance on Sunday, Glassnode said on Twitter.
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Fast facts
- This is the second time the open interest of futures contracts on one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges reached an all-time high in eight months — the last time was just one day before.
- According to Glassnodes’ analysis report, the open interest for Ethereum options was US$6.6 billion on all markets on Aug. 8, which was the first time the data was higher than Bitcoin’s options open interest US$4.8 billion, implying a “state of extreme bullish bias” on Ethereum.
- Open interest is the total number of futures contracts held by market participants at the end of the trading day. It is used as an indicator to determine market sentiment and the strength behind price trends.
- But the rise is likely to be followed by another slump of ETH, as September call options are less than put options, Glassnode said by compiling crypto data dashboard Deribit’s data.
- Glassnode also said that for the month after the update, there is little demand for calls and greater demand for downside protection, suggesting that traders are hedging or speculating on downside risk then.
- ETH’s price reached its three-month high over the weekend, breaking US$2,000, after the last rehearsal before the final merge, the Goerli testnet merge, went live last Wednesday.
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