Ether funding flips negative as bears remain in control

Ether has struggled to hold above $2,100 over the past month, eroding traders’ confidence despite a 7% gain between Monday and Tuesday. Perpetual futures funding dipped into negative territory on Tuesday and has remained below the neutral 6%–12% range, indicating elevated demand for short positions and limited interest in leveraged longs.

Onchain activity has cooled: weekly base-layer fees averaged $2.3 million over the past month, down from an $8 million peak in early February, while seven-day transaction counts stabilized near 14 million. The focus on layer-2 rollup scalability has yet to generate fresh demand for native Ether, even as the options market shows modest recovery with put options trading at a 7% premium to calls and the options risk gauge hovering near the neutral −6% to +6% range; no competitor has yet challenged Ethereum’s $56 billion in TVL.

Institutional flows cooled as spot Ether ETFs saw $225 million in net outflows between Thursday and Monday, reversing $169 million of inflows from Wednesday.

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