Ethereum Open Interest Nears All-Time Highs Ahead Of Merge

Keshav Verma

Last Updated: August 10, 2022 7:00 pm

3 mins read

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Data shows the Ethereum open interest has surged up to near all-time high values as the ETH 2.0 merge comes closer.

Ethereum Open Interest Has Sharply Risen Up Recently

As per the latest weekly report from Arcane Research, the ETH open interest in futures and perps has surged up to 4.2 million ETH in recent days.

The “open interest” is an indicator that measures the total amount of Ethereum futures and perps contracts currently open in the market (denominated in ETH). The metric includes both shorts and longs.

When the value of this indicator is high, it means a large number of contracts are currently open in the market. Such values usually lead to higher volatility in the price of the crypto.

On the other hand, low values of the metric suggest many contracts have been closed on the market. This can result in lesser volatility for the coin.

Now, here is a chart that shows the trend in the Ethereum futures and perps open interest over the past year:

The value of the metric seems to have moved up recently | Source: Arcane Research's The Weekly Update - Week 31, 2022

As you can see in the above graph, the Ethereum open interest has observed uptrend in the past week and is now near the all-time high value.

The current value is the 2nd highest ever recorded for the indicator, just below the 4.21 million ATH set back on July 14th of this year.

While the massive hedging amid arbitrage opportunities like Celsius’ bankruptcy was behind the last peak, the report notes that the current rise is likely caused by trading strategies ahead of the 2.0 merge.

The ETH futures market is also observing massive discounts at the moment. Normally, high open interest and negative basis like right now lend for the possibility of a short squeeze (an event where short liquidations cascade together due to a sudden swing in price).

But Arcane Research points out that the latest increase in leverage is likely from more conservative risk management, which would mean that any possible short squeeze that might take place currently won’t be too significant.

ETH Price

At the time of writing, Ethereum’s price floats around $1.7k, down 1% in the past week. Over the last month, the crypto has gained 40% in value.

The below chart shows the trend in the price of the coin over the past five days.

Looks like the value of the crypto has come down during the last two days | Source: ETHUSD on TradingView

Featured image from Kanchanara on Unsplash.com, charts from TradingView.com, Arcane Research

Keshav Verma

Keshav is currently a senior writer at NewsBTC and has been attached to the website since June 14, 2021.

Keshav has been writing for many years, first as a hobbyist and later as a freelancer. He has experience working in a variety of niches, even fiction at one point, but the cryptocurrency industry has been the longest he has been attached to.

In terms of official educational qualifications, Keshav holds a bachelor’s degree in Physics from one of the premier institutes of India, the University of Delhi (DU). He started the degree with an aim of eventually making a career in Physics, but the onset of COVID led to a shift in plans. The virus meant that the college classes had to be delivered in the online-mode and with it came free time for him to explore other passions.

Initially only seeking to make some beer money, Keshav unexpectedly landed clients offering real projects, after which there was no looking back. Writing was something he had always enjoyed and to be able to do it for a living was like a dream come true.

Keshav completed his Physics degree in 2022 and has been focusing on his writing career since, but that doesn’t mean his passion for Physics has ended. He eventually plans to re-enter university to obtain a masters degree in the same field, but perhaps only to satiate his own interest rather than for using it as a means to find employment..

Keshav has found blockchain and its concepts fascinating ever since he started going down the rabbit-hole back in 2020. On-chain analysis in particular has been something he likes to research more about, which is why his NewsBTC pieces tend to involve it in some form.

Being of the science background, Keshav likes if concepts are clear and consistent, so he generally explains the indicators he talks about in a bit of detail so that the readers can perhaps come out having understood and learnt something new.

As for hobbies, Keshav is super into football, anime, and videogames. He enjoys football not only as a watcher, but also as a player. For games, Keshav generally tends towards enjoying singleplayer adventures, with EA FC (formerly FIFA) being the only online game he is active in. Though, perhaps due to being ultra-focused on the game, he is today a semi-pro on the EA FC scene, regularly participating in tournaments and sometimes even taking back prize money.

Because of his enthusiasm for anime and games, he also self-learned Japanese along the way to consume some of the untranslated gems out there. The skill didn’t merely remain as just a hobby, either, as he put it to productive use during his exploration for small-time gigs at the start of COVID, fulfilling a couple of Japanese-to-English translation jobs.

Keshav is also big into fitness, with agility and acceleration-related workouts making a big part of his program due to the relevance they have in football. On top of that, he also has a more traditional strength based program for the gym, which he does to maintain an overall fitness level of his body.

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