ETH futures displace BTC volume as traders shift sentiment toward Ethereum

Trader focus is shifting, causing one of the rare occasions when Ethereum futures activity outpaces BTC. The trade signals a shift in sentiment, breaking the streak of ETH being considered an underperforming asset. 

Trader focus is shifting toward Ethereum, as ETH futures volumes overtook Bitcoin. BTC returned to its spot as the leader soon after, but the increased trading signals a shift for ETH sentiment and a possible trader rotation. 

#Ethereum just flipped #Bitcoin in 24h futures volume: $62.1B vs $61.7B!
That’s rare – and it signals a potential rotation in trader focus and positioning ahead of possible $ETH-specific catalysts. pic.twitter.com/34XlbZgimQ

— glassnode (@glassnode) July 10, 2025

Based on Glassnode data, ETH futures expanded to $62.1B for 24-hour volumes, while BTC achieved $61.7B. ETH volumes soon slowed down to $61.7B for the day, still close behind BTC. Liquidations were also more active for Ethereum based on the current trader positioning.

Spot volumes for ETH are at around $28B per day, with $40B for BTC. The leading coin still dominates the market, with over $34B in open interest and around $18B for ETH. While BTC open interest remained largely unchanged, ETH positions nearly doubled from recent lows, showing traders have not capitulated. 

ETH recovers $2,800, still unable to make a bigger move

The next step for Ethereum may include factors specific to the chain, especially DeFi growth and stablecoin traffic. For now, ETH managed to break above $2,800, but is yet to show additional strength to recover above $3,000.

ETH traded at $2,777.40, after taking a step backward. In the past week, ETH recovered against BTC, rising to 0.025 BTC. However, for the year to date, ETH lost 29% of its value against BTC. 

A shift in sentiment may anticipate a trend reversal, where ETH activity increases to tap a more dramatic price move. One of the potential scenarios includes gaining against BTC, or a hike to the $3,000 or $4,000 level. 

However, ETH currently sees most of its derivative liquidity in long positions, starting at around $2,600. The recent rally may reverse to liquidate those positions. Based on trader positioning on Binance, ETH has mostly finished liquidating the long positions. 

In the past 24 hours, traders were liquidated for $157.9M in short positions. Following the large daily liquidation event, traders turned to attacking long positions.

Ethereum may see renewed buying pressure

Until recently, ETH fell due to combined selling pressure from whales and from the reserves of Grayscale. Recently, Grayscale started re-accumulating ETH, along with other funds. 

ETH is also accumulating in whale wallets with 10,000 or more tokens. Mega-whale wallets now hold over 41M ETH, after months of slow and mostly invisible accumulation. Around 30% of the ETH supply is staked in the Beacon Chain contract. 

Ethereum is also getting accumulated in corporate treasuries, following a similar path to BTC. In any case, ETH is seen as valuable and as the central chain for decentralized finance and stablecoins. 

The expectations for an ETH rally may also reawaken altcoins, leading to a breakout season in the second half of 2025.

The Ethereum narrative is also abandoning the recent capitulation and the expectations that the chain will be useless and abandoned. Ethereum remains a DeFi lending leader, compensating for the loss of meme tokens, gaming tokens and other Web3 trends from the 2021 bull market. 

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