Ether slides below $2,000 as futures open interest hits record 16.39M tokens
In brief
- Ether fell below $2,000 Thursday, down nearly 8% in the past week
- Futures open interest hit record 16.39M tokens ($32.5B notional) amid selling pressure
- Spot ETF outflows of $401M in May signal waning investor confidence
- Ethereum Foundation departures and founder skepticism weigh on sentiment
Selling Pressure Mounts
Ether was down nearly 8% over the past seven days, with losses exceeding 5% in the last 24 hours alone. The weakness extends to the spot market. Spot Ether ETFs listed in the U.S. have seen cumulative outflows of $401 million in May, reversing earlier gains and signaling investor retreat from the largest smart contract blockchain.
The technical picture tells an even grimmer story. Open interest in ether futures has risen for the third straight day, hitting a record high of 16.39 million tokens, which equates to a notional open interest of about $32.5 billion. Combined with a negative cumulative volume delta, this pattern points to aggressive net selling in ether futures rather than organic buying interest.
The Deeper Skepticism
What's driving the shift goes beyond price mechanics. David Hoffman, co-founder of Bankless, recently announced he sold his ETH holdings after concluding that the long-standing thesis of ETH as money has largely played out. The Ethereum Foundation has faced high-profile departures, including prominent contributors Carl Beekhuizen and Julian Ma, signaling internal shifts in confidence.
Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, offered a structural critique:
"More and more people giving up on ETH as it doesn't generate revenue and with higher bond yields the staking yield is unattractive. The only buyer has been Bitmine but they indicated that they will slow down their purchases."
The core issue isn't Ethereum's technical strength. Ethereum still leads other smart contract blockchains in raw ecosystem development activity, according to research firm House of Chimera. Rather, the market is questioning how that infrastructure advantage translates into ETH token value—a gap that's proving difficult to bridge.
