Wednesday, February 4, 2026

ETH’s Negative Funding Rates May Not Be A Buy Signal This Time

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Key takeaways:

  • Ether dropped 28% in per week to $2,110 as buyers reduce threat and markets worn out leveraged merchants.

  • Spot ETH ETF outflows reached $447 million as Ethereum community exercise fell by 47%.

Ether (ETH) plummeted to $2,110 on Tuesday, signaling fragility following a brutal 28% worth correction over seven days. Buyers retreated into money and short-term authorities bonds because the tech-heavy Nasdaq Index additionally fell 1.4%. 

Merchants fear that valuations have turn into overextended and overly reliant on the synthetic intelligence sector. Sentiment soured after Nvidia (NVDA US) CEO Jensen Huang denied plans to invest $100 billion in OpenAI.

Buyers braced for added volatility following disappointing quarterly outcomes from fintech large Paypal (PYPL US). In the meantime, gold costs climbed 6%, and silver gained 9%, suggesting a insecurity within the US Federal Reserve’s capacity to forestall a recession. 

Issues over inflated inventory market valuations prompted merchants to turn into more and more risk-averse, inflicting demand for bullish leveraged ETH positions to evaporate.

ETH perpetual futures annualized funding fee. Supply: laevitas.ch

The ETH perpetual futures annualized funding rate turned unfavorable on Tuesday, indicating that shorts (sellers) are paying charges to keep up their positions. This uncommon shift displays a profound insecurity from longs (consumers). 

Market members are actually debating whether or not this excessive worry presents a strategic entry level, particularly since ETH has underperformed the broader cryptocurrency market by 10% during the last 30 days.

Whole crypto capitalization (blue) vs. ETH/USD (orange). Supply: Tradingview

Ether buyers grew uneasy as different main cryptocurrencies weathered much less extreme corrections over the previous month; Bitcoin (BTC) dropped 17%, BNB (BNB) fell 14%, and Tron (TRX) declined 4%. Ether’s weekly slide to $2,110 compelled the liquidation of over $2 billion in leveraged bullish ETH futures, fueling issues of additional draw back as market sentiment turns bearish.

ETH futures 24-hour liquidations, USD. Supply: Coinglass

Ether pressured as exchange-traded funds outflows sign cooling demand

Ether worth was additional burdened by $447 million in internet outflows from US-listed Ethereum spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) over 5 days. Institutional demand has cooled, regardless of continued accumulation from companies like Bitmine Immersion (BMNR US), Sharplink (SBET US), and The Ether Machine (ETHM US). Merchants stay cautious of potential promote strain stemming from the $14.4 billion held in mixture Ethereum ETFs.

As curiosity in decentralized purposes (dApps) waned, the urge for food for ETH diminished considerably.

Decentralized exchanges’ month-to-month volumes by blockchain, USD. Supply: DefiLlama

Buying and selling volumes on Ethereum decentralized exchanges (DEX) reached $52.8 billion in January, a pointy drop from $98.9 billion in October 2025. This 47% decline in exercise reduces incentives for holders; usually, excessive demand for blockchain processing triggers the community’s burn mechanism, which shrinks the whole ETH provide.

Associated: Spot crypto volumes plunge to 2024 lows amid investor demand weakens

Addresses linked to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin offered roughly $2.3 million in ETH after earmarking $45 million for donations towards privateness applied sciences, open {hardware}, and safe software program. Buterin stated {that a} whole of 16,384 ETH from his private holdings shall be steadily deployed over the approaching years.

The present lack of demand for bullish ETH perpetual futures shouldn’t be considered as a sign for a fast reversal. Onchain metrics proceed to weaken, and general sentiment stays cautious given the prevailing macroeconomic uncertainty.