Ethereum loses 2 billion dollars of open interest in seven days

Ethereum takes a hard hit on the derivatives markets: over 2 billion dollars of open interest have disappeared in the space of seven days. Trader sentiment has weighed down, closed positions are piling up, yet some more recent signals hint at a possible turnaround. So, is it a capitulation underway or just a consolidation before a rebound?

Ethereum under pressure after a 2 billion drop on futures contracts

The figures published by Coinglass are unequivocal. In the week of April 14 to 21, 2026, traders closed more than 2 billion dollars of open positions on ETH. 

This is not a first: in March, the market suffered an identical contraction. According to Amr Taha, analyst at CryptoQuant, ETH is going through its second capitulation phase in thirty days, a sign that market weakness is not temporary.

Binance and Gate are at the heart of this purge. Gate had a balance of 4.67 billion dollars on April 14; it has since fallen back to 2.88 billion. Most of the leverage effect has therefore evaporated in less than a week. 

This movement goes beyond simple selling pressure: the hacking of the Kelp DAO played an aggravating role, with up to 210 million dollars in ETH likely to be liquidated in this context.

Coinalyze data reinforce this picture. Approximately 34% of open positions are currently short, and the funding rate on Binance points to -0.0058%. Concrete translation: a majority of active traders are betting on a short-term drop in ETH.

As for the Ethereum fear and greed index, it stands at 53 points, an officially “neutral” score. However, behind this neutrality lies real caution: most participants prefer to wait for a better entry point rather than expose themselves in a market without a clear direction.

Whales, however, have not said their last word

While derivatives are bleeding, the spot market tells a completely different story. More than 2,430 wallets, identified as “structural accumulators” by CryptoQuant, continue to buy ETH relentlessly. 

Even better: holders of more than 100,000 ETH remain in positive territory and have shown no signs of panic, even when their positions were temporarily in the red.

ETH also maintains its prized position in DeFi. Despite a slowdown in volumes on decentralized protocols, Ethereum remains the undisputed reference for lending and exchanges on DEXs. Hard to ignore.

Even more revealing: more than 2.7 million ETH are currently waiting to be deposited on the Beacon Chain contract for long-term staking. This is not the move of a doubting investor, it is the move of an investor betting on the long run.

Added to this is a strong signal reported this week by Darkfost, an analyst at CryptoQuant. The net taker volume on ETH derivatives has just reached +102 million dollars, its highest buying level since the 2022 bear market. 

To measure the scale of the change: this same indicator touched -568 million dollars at the peak near 5,000 dollars at the end of 2024. The price was rising, but the market was selling. Today, the reverse is beginning to emerge.

This turnaround does not guarantee an immediate recovery. But it says one thing clearly: the selling pressure that stifled every attempt at Ether’s rise is finally starting to ease.