In the past month, $ETH activity expanded significantly, affecting both volumes and open interest. Now, $ETH markets are showing signals of selling pressure.
$ETH is showing signs of selling pressure, affecting both derivative and spot markets. After becoming one of the leading assets in September, $ETH now has to defend the $2,700 level again, while traders recover their conviction.
Over the weekend, $ETH open interest continued to expand, rising from $18B to $18.7B, recovering after a period of liquidations. As of October 2, $ETH open interest briefly peaked at $19.9B, the highest level since November 2025. $ETH is yet to recover its open interest from before October 10, 2025, but has shown more liveliness in the past month.
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$ETH has also broken its downtrend against $BTC, bouncing from a low of 0.019 $ETH per $BTC in April. In the past week, $ETH expanded to 0.032 $BTC, after drawing more attention and offering more dynamic trading compared to $BTC.
$ETH shows signs of selling pressure on Binance
Recent analysis on Binance shows trader positioning is starting to veer away from price action. On October 5, $ETH traded at $2,721.83, recovering from a recent dip to $2,660.
Despite this, the positioning of traders on Binance is shifting. Recent trading analysis showed Ethereum cumulative net taker volume (CVD) for selling turned negative since August, showing the past month already faced growing selling pressure. CVD also had a sharp dip on October 2, coinciding with a selling event for $ETH over the weekend.
The ratio of $ETH selling takers kept going lower, meaning $ETH is facing increasing selling pressure, which competes with greed-based trading and more bullish sentiment. | Source: Cryptoquant
The downward CVD trend means increasing selling pressure for $ETH, which goes against the general recovery trend. After closing its best September since 2016, $ETH has not shown signs of immediately jumping to a higher range.
$ETH sentiment is at 65 points, remaining in the greed range, and sparking some hopes that selling may be compensated with a bullish expectation.
On the spot market, a notable whale sold 13,330 $ETH out of their initial reserves, acquired at the ICO for $0.31 per $ETH.
$ETH open interest on Hyperliquid is still a leader
One of the drivers of the $ETH price action is the rising open interest on Hyperliquid. Positions are now valued at $3.3B, above the $BTC open interest of $3.24B. Binance is still the leader with $9.4B in open interest, but Hyperliquid speculation offers a different type of liquidation pressure.
On Hyperliquid, short positions start with a clear cut-off above $2,800. On Binance, short positions are more distributed, with an accumulation at around $2,750.
Most long positions on Hyperliquid are protecting the $2,600 range, while short traders have built up liquidity all the way to $3,000 per $ETH. On Hyperliquid, the $ETH/USD futures achieved $886M in daily volume, still lower than the $2B in $BTC futures.
Around 67% of $ETH traders on Hyperliquid have taken long positions. Some market makers and whales like Abraxas Capital are currently holding large short positions, while receiving funding fees for their risk.
$ETH trades at a high risk of liquidation, both on the long and short sides. For now, short positions are seen as vulnerable to attacks if $ETH manages to add another $100 to its price. With a more bullish sentiment, $ETH is still vulnerable to selling to attack long positions.
cryptopolitan.com
