Due to the sudden shift in market expectations towards the approval of a US Ethereum spot ETF, there has been a significant increase in open interest contracts for Ethereum (ETH) futures. According to data from Coinglass, the total network open interest contracts for ETH futures have risen by 25% in the past 24 hours, reaching a record high of $14.6 billion. The previous peak was set on March 15th this year at $13.2 billion.
Source:
Coinglass
The data shows that the open interest contracts for Ethereum on Binance amount to $5.5 billion, while Bybit has approximately $3.1 billion. However, when calculated in terms of ETH, the total network open interest contracts for ETH futures currently stand at around 3.84 million ETH, still far from the peak of 5 million ETH set in October 2022.
According to TradingView data, Ethereum started a bullish trend from around 3:00 AM on Tuesday, rising from around $3,150 to nearly $3,700, a 16% increase. With the surge in Ethereum’s price, the total amount of liquidated contracts in the past 24 hours has reached nearly $325 million, with approximately 77,000 people being liquidated. Among them, short positions worth around $264 million were liquidated.
Source:
Coinglass
Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, stated earlier today on the X platform that he and another Bloomberg analyst, James Seyffart, have increased the probability of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approving an Ethereum spot ETF from 25% to 75%. Meanwhile, according to reports from the media outlet CoinDesk, the SEC has requested potential exchanges seeking to list tradable Ethereum spot ETFs to expedite the update of their 19b-4 filings, indicating an attempt by the regulatory agency to accelerate the process.
The regulatory agency is scheduled to make a decision on VanEck’s Ethereum spot ETF on May 23rd (Thursday). According to previous reports from Zombit, Nate Geraci, the President of ETF Store, stated yesterday that the SEC must approve both 19b-4s (rule changes) and S-1 (registration statements) for an ETF to be truly listed. However, based on the SEC’s involvement in Ethereum ETFs, the agency may choose to approve 19b-4s first and then slow down the approval process for S-1 (especially considering the lack of involvement).
Data source
