Key Takeaways:
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Ether exchange-traded funds recorded $71 million in inflows, signaling strong institutional interest.
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Weekly decentralized exchange volume doubled to $20 billion, narrowing the sales gap with Solana.
Ether (ETH) price failed to keep up levels above $2,000 on Thursday, leaving traders to weigh the possible catalysts for a market turnaround. While optimism has waned since Friday's plunge to $1,745, each exchange-traded fund (ETF) inflows and ETH derivatives metrics are starting to indicate signs of a turnaround.
Traders at the moment are wondering whether there’s enough momentum for a bounce back towards $2,400.
Daily net inflows of US-listed Ether ETFs, USD. Source: Farside Investors
U.S.-listed Ether ETFs recently broke a three-day outflow streak, attracting $71 million in fresh capital between Monday and Tuesday. Crucially, assets under management have stabilized at $13 billion, enough to sustain institutional interest. The average day by day trading volume of Ether ETFs is currently over $1.65 billion, a level of liquidity that permits the participation of the world's largest hedge funds.
To put Ether ETFs in perspective, the State Street Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE US) – the biggest within the US energy sector – trades a mean of $1.5 billion per day. This instrument tracks a combined market capitalization of $2 trillion from corporations resembling Exxon (XOM US), Chevron (CVX US), ConocoPhillips (COP US), The Williams Companies (WMB) and Kinder Morgan (KMI US).
ETH metrics and ETF inflows signal a possible market recovery
While institutional demand for Ether ETF trading is a positive indicator, this doesn’t guarantee that demand for ETH derivatives is inherently positive.
ETH 2-month futures base rate. Source: Laevitas.ch
On Wednesday, the annualized premium (base rate of interest) of ETH futures remained below the neutral threshold of 5%. This lack of demand for bullish leverage has been a consistent theme over the past three months. However, the indicator has stabilized at 3% despite ETH price hitting its lowest level in nine months. These derivatives markets are showing moderate resilience, which continues to be an encouraging sign for Ether investors.
Ethereum total value locked, USD. Source: DefiLlama
According to DefiLlama data, Ether price weakness has pushed Ethereum's Total Value Locked (TVL) to $54.2 billion, up from $71.2 billion the previous month. Reduced deposits into the network's smart contracts represent a significant risk as lower chain fees reduce the native staking return. Additionally, Ethereum’s supply burn mechanism continues to rely on excessive demand for blockchain processing.
Despite these deteriorating conditions, demand for Ethereum decentralized applications (DApps) has step by step improved throughout 2026.
Ethereum 7-day DEX volume (left) vs. DApps turnover (right), USD. Source: DefiLlama
The weekly volume of decentralized exchanges (DEX) on the Ethereum network increased to $20 billion from $9.8 billion the previous month. This increased activity resulted in DApps revenue reaching $26.6 million within the seven days ended February 8, providing a great indicator of ETH demand. While Solana remained the clear leader with weekly DApps revenue of $31.1 million, the gap between the 2 networks is narrowing.
What those watching Ether's price motion fail to see is that ETH's on-chain metrics and derivatives have shown resilience, especially as inflows into Ether ETFs began to extend again. While it’d take a number of weeks for investors to feel fully confident again, there are strong signs that a short-term recovery towards $2,400 is feasible.
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