Although the Ether price dropped by 44 percent in 2026, long leveraged positions appear to have increased in the futures market. Ether futures open interest on Binance hit an all-time high of 3.7 million ETH. This figure indicates that the exchange carries more than 44 percent of total Ether futures.
Remarkable change in Binance data
Crypto analyst Darkfost stated that activity in Ether futures has gained strength despite the uncertainty created by geopolitical tensions and weakening macroeconomic conditions. According to the analyst, Binance reached a new high with approximately 3.7 million ETH in open Ether futures contracts.
According to Darkfost’s assessment, despite the increasing uncertainty, the recovery in Ether futures activity continues and the amount of open interest on Binance marks a new record with 3.7 million ETH.
During the same period, Binance’s weekly average buyer-seller ratio increased from 0.95 to 1.0 after months of seller-dominated transactions. A ratio approaching 1.0 indicates that the market has moved to a more balanced structure after a long-term selling pressure.
Mini dictionary: Open position refers to the total of futures contracts that have not yet been closed. The buyer-seller ratio is a short-term indicator that shows whether the buying or selling side is more dominant in market orders.
Buyers are not just on Binance
The trend is not limited to Binance. The buyer-seller ratio across all exchanges increased from 0.94 to 1 in the last two weeks. This chart reveals that buyers are more visible than sellers in market orders.
On the other hand, it is noteworthy that speculative activity exceeds spot demand. Binance’s perpetual futures and spot volume imbalance indicator reached approximately 0.90, approaching a historical peak. The 30-day Z score of the same indicator was measured as 2.53.
Continuous futures trading volume was approximately 5.57 million ETH, while spot trading volume remained around 290 thousand ETH. This difference indicates that growth in leveraged transactions is proceeding much faster than activity in the underlying market.
Divergence between stock markets deepens
Market analyst Amr Taha stated that there is a clear divergence in the positioning between the stock markets. Accordingly, Binance has increased by 616 thousand 400 ETH in its open position in the last 30 days. This stood out as the strongest increase since 2019. In the same period, there was a decrease of 631 thousand 700 ETH in Gate.io. Gate.io is known as one of the major exchanges operating on a global scale in crypto asset transactions.
Liquidation zones are closely monitored
Liquidation heat maps show that there is a cluster of approximately $8 billion in short positions in the $2,200 to $2,400 range. If the Ether price gains upward momentum, this range could become one of the prominent liquidity zones.
On the other hand, high leverage in both directions draws attention in the short-term outlook. There is a risk of liquidation of approximately $1.72 billion of cumulative long positions below the current $1,500 level. On the other hand, there is a short position liquidation risk of approximately $1.90 billion around $1,800.
The fact that the difference between these two pools remains narrow shows that bullish and bearish positions are under similar pressure. The current structure in the market indicates that the direction in which the price will break is closely monitored, as well as which liquidation zone this break will trigger first.
