Ethereum Price Forecast: ETH plunges below $2,000 as funding rates return to negative territory

Ethereum price today: $1,920

• Ethereum could extend its decline to $1,740 after sliding below $2,000.
• Funding rates returned to negative territory, marking one of the longest periods of bearish dominance since the October 10 leverage flush.
• Vitalik Buterin has offloaded 6,183 ETH over the past three days.

Ethereum (ETH) has broken below $2,000 on Thursday, extending its decline to about 30% over the past week.

The move follows a crash in Ethereum's funding rates, which have returned to negative territory after briefly flipping positive.

Funding rates are periodic payments between traders to keep the price of perpetual futures contracts anchored to their underlying spot counterparts. Negative funding rates occur when a contract's price is below the spot price, prompting short traders to pay long traders.

ETH's funding rates have largely been negative since the beginning of the month as prices have continued sliding lower, representing one of the longest periods of bearish dominance since the days following the October 10 leverage flush.

The return to negative funding comes as open interest (OI) rose slightly from 11.91 million to 12.34 million ETH. Such moves often represent traders buying the dip or adding downside pressure.

On the spot side, US investors' sentiment continues to plunge deeper as the Coinbase Premium Index has remained in negative territory over the past month, declining to -0.21 on Thursday, its lowest level since December 2024. The index measures US investors' sentiment by comparing ETH's price on Coinbase Pro with that of Binance.

Meanwhile, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has been rapidly distributing ETH. In the past three days, he has offloaded about 6,183 ETH at an average price of $2,140, according to data cited by Lookonchain.

Buterin had earlier outlined plans to withdraw 16,384 ETH to fund open-source projects, including privacy tools and biotech.

Ethereum Price Forecast: ETH slides below $2,000, targets $1,730

Ethereum has seen over $334 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, led by $252 million in long liquidations, per Coinglass data.

ETH breached the $2,100 support and the $2,000 psychological level on Thursday. The top altcoin could test the $1,740 support level if it fails to recover above $2,100.

Further down, ETH could extend the decline to $1,500 if it breaches $1,740. ETH is trading around $1,920, down 11% over the past 24 hours at the time of publication.

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) and Stochastic Oscillator (Stoch) remain in oversold territory, indicating a strong bearish momentum.