Friday, October 17, 2025

Bullish Crowd or Bearish Setup?

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Key takeaways:

  • Retail merchants maintain 94% lengthy positions on Ether, typically a contrarian indicator.

  • ETH funding on Binance stays wholesome, with leverage average and never euphoric.

  • BitMine continues accumulating with over 300,000 ETH added to the reserve this week.

Ether (ETH) continues to commerce beneath the essential $4,000 threshold, struggling to ascertain bullish directional momentum following final Friday’s flash crash. The altcoin consolidated between its 50, 100, and 200-day exponential transferring averages (EMAs), a technical zone that highlighted the continuing tug-of-war between short-term and long-term market traits.

Cryptocurrencies, Markets, Cryptocurrency Exchange, Tom Lee, Binance, Price Analysis, Market Analysis, Altcoin Watch, Ether Price, Ethereum Price, Ethereum ETF
ETH one-day chart. Supply: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Retail ETH longs dominate the futures market, however carry a contrarian outlook

Regardless of the blended technical setup, retail merchants seemed to be betting aggressively on additional upside. Information from buying and selling useful resource Hyblock Capital outlined Ether’s True Retail Accounts (TRAs) lengthy proportion has reached the ninetieth percentile, one of many highest ranges throughout main crypto property. Hyblock said,

“True Retail Accounts Lengthy% is getting excessive amongst fairly a couple of cash, noting percentile readings of 94% for Bitcoin, 90% for Ether, and 86% for Solana.”

Surprisingly, the corporate added that retail lengthy positioning is inversely correlated with value, at -0.86 for ETH, implying that as retail longs attain excessive highs, the probability of a reversal grows.

Cryptocurrencies, Markets, Cryptocurrency Exchange, Tom Lee, Binance, Price Analysis, Market Analysis, Altcoin Watch, Ether Price, Ethereum Price, Ethereum ETF
True retail lengthy % on Binance for BTC, ETH, SOL, and HYPE. Supply: Hyblock Capital/X

The ninetieth percentile for ETH longs advised that retail sentiment is closely skewed towards optimism (i.e., anticipating costs to rise). Traditionally, excessive retail positioning, particularly when it reaches outlier territory (e.g., ninetieth percentile), can act as a contrarian indicator.

It’s because it might sign overcrowding in lengthy positions, probably resulting in a reversal if retail merchants begin taking earnings or getting liquidated.

Talking on the derivatives market, crypto analyst Pelin Ay offered a extra nuanced view of the market’s construction, noting that funding charges stay optimistic however restrained, signaling a market dominated by longs however not but euphoric. 

Ay defined that present funding ranges between 0.01%–0.03% indicated a wholesome mid-phase uptrend, far beneath overheated bull-phase ranges of 0.1%–0.2% seen in 2021. The analyst added that average leverage and bettering spot demand might set the stage for a renewed rally towards $4,500–$5,000, whereas any sudden surge in funding above 0.05% might mark overcrowded longs and set off short-term pullbacks.

Cryptocurrencies, Markets, Cryptocurrency Exchange, Tom Lee, Binance, Price Analysis, Market Analysis, Altcoin Watch, Ether Price, Ethereum Price, Ethereum ETF
Ether funding charge on Binance. Supply: CryptoQuant

Related: 95% of corporate ETH buys happened in Q3 — start of Ether supercycle?

Institutional treasuries purchase the Ether dip

Massive-scale ETH holders are additionally making the most of the current pullback. Information confirmed that BitMine Immersion Applied sciences, chaired by Tom Lee, accumulated 104,336 ETH price round $417 million on Thursday. 

This added to BitMine’s earlier acquisition of over 202,000 ETH on Sunday, with the present market worth of its ETH reserve coming at $9.3 billion. Regardless of current volatility, Lee has reiterated his year-end goal of $10,000 per ETH, supported by growing institutional and spot market demand.

Cryptocurrencies, Markets, Cryptocurrency Exchange, Tom Lee, Binance, Price Analysis, Market Analysis, Altcoin Watch, Ether Price, Ethereum Price, Ethereum ETF
Bitmine ETH reserve. Supply: Strategicethreserve.xyz

Related: Ethereum confirms bearish signal that last time led to ETH dropping 60%

This text doesn’t include funding recommendation or suggestions. Each funding and buying and selling transfer entails threat, and readers ought to conduct their very own analysis when making a call.