Key Takeaways:
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Ether fell 28% in per week to $2,110 as investors reduced risk and markets worn out leveraged traders.
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Spot ETF outflows reached $447 million as Ethereum network activity fell by 47%.
Ether (ETH) plunged to $2,110 on Tuesday, signaling fragility after a brutal 28% price correction in seven days. Investors retreated into money and short-term Treasury bonds because the tech-heavy Nasdaq index also fell 1.4%.
Traders worry that valuations are stretched and overly reliant on the substitute intelligence sector. Sentiment worsened after Nvidia (NVDA US) CEO Jensen Huang denied plans to take a position $100 billion in OpenAI.
Investors braced for extra volatility following disappointing quarterly results from fintech giant Paypal (PYPL US). Meanwhile, gold prices rose 6% and silver prices rose 9%, suggesting a insecurity within the Federal Reserve's ability to forestall a recession.
Concerns over inflated stock market valuations caused traders to turn into increasingly risk-averse, leading to a decline in demand for bullishly leveraged ETH positions.
The annual funding rate of ETH Perpetual Futures. Source: laevitas.ch
The ETH perpetual futures annual funding rate turned negative on Tuesday, suggesting that short sellers (sellers) are paying fees to carry their positions. This rare shift reflects a profound insecurity on the a part of longs (buyers).
Market participants are actually debating whether this extreme fear represents a strategic entry point, especially since ETH has underperformed the broader cryptocurrency market by 10% over the past 30 days.
Total cryptocurrency capitalization (blue) vs. ETH/USD (orange). Source: Tradingview
Ether investors grew jittery as other major cryptocurrencies weathered less severe corrections last month; Bitcoin (BTC) fell 17%, BNB (BNB) fell 14%, and Tron (TRX) fell 4%. Ether's weekly decline to $2,110 forced the liquidation of over $2 billion price of leveraged bullish ETH futures, fueling fears of further downside as market sentiment turns bearish.
ETH futures 24-hour liquidations, USD. Source: Coinglass
Ether is under pressure as exchange-traded fund outflows signal slowing demand
Ether prices were further weighed down by net outflows of $447 million from U.S.-listed Ethereum spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in five days. Institutional demand has cooled despite continued accumulation from the likes of Bitmine Immersion (BMNR US), Sharplink (SBET US) and The Ether Machine (ETHM US). Traders remain concerned in regards to the potential selling pressure coming from the $14.4 billion total Ethereum ETFs.
As interest in decentralized applications (dApps) waned, demand for ETH decreased significantly.
Monthly volumes of decentralized exchanges by blockchain, USD. Source: DefiLlama
Trading volume on Ethereum decentralized exchanges (DEX) reached $52.8 billion in January, a pointy decline from $98.9 billion in October 2025. This 47% drop in activity reduces incentives for holders; Typically, high demand for blockchain processing triggers the network's burn mechanism, which shrinks the overall ETH supply.
Addresses linked to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin sold about $2.3 million in ETH after $45 million was earmarked for donations for privacy technologies, open hardware and secure software. Buterin said that a complete of 16,384 ETH from his personal holdings will probably be steadily deployed in the approaching years.
The current lack of demand for bullish ETH perpetual futures shouldn’t be taken as a signal of a fast trend reversal. On-chain metrics proceed to weaken and overall sentiment stays cautious amid prevailing macroeconomic uncertainty.
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