Ether Futures Surge to Record Highs as Open Interest Tops $14 Billion

• Ether futures open interest on centralized exchanges has hit a record $14 billion.
• Daily open interest in Ether futures has risen 40% since early 2024.
• Optimism for a spot Ether ETF approval has increased, with analysts raising SEC approval odds from 25% to 75%.

Ether’s open interest futures on centralized exchanges (CEX) have surpassed their previous highs, reflecting increased trading volume. Open interest (OI) measures the aggregated number of open positions in a particular contract, making it a key indicator of market sentiment, liquidity, and investor sentiment.

According to insights from CoinGlass, ETH Open Interest futures hit an all-time high of $14 billion on Tuesday. This marked a significant increase in the total value of all Ether’s outstanding contracts.

On a year-to-date, daily open interest in ether futures has risen 40% from its initial $10 million valuation. Equally, Ether held price gains in its previous intraday session, surging by 21% to trade at $ 3,783, per data from Coincodex.

The major driver of this positive trend is the renewed optimism surrounding the approval of spot Ether ETFs.  As a result, ETF analysts, particularly Bloomberg’s James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas, have revised their estimations of the SEC approving spot ether ETFs, raising their estimations from 25% to 75%. Balchunas stated:

“Update: JSeyff and I are increasing our odds of spot Ether ETF approval to 75% (up from 25%), hearing chatter this afternoon that SEC could be doing a 180 on this (increasingly political issue), so now everyone scrambling (like us everyone else assumed they’d be denied),”

Previously, Balchunas estimated the chances of an Ether ETF approval to be 25% in March, down from 70% in January. Co-analyst Seyffart also expressed scepticism regarding the approval, pointing to inactivity from key entities before the May 23 deadline set by the SEC.

The agency requested that issuers update and resubmit Form 19b-4 documents, which require regulatory clearance before launching spot ether ETFs. In line with this, the first wave of applications is expected this week, with VanEck’s due and Ark Invest/21Shares’ individual deadlines on the 23rd and 24th, respectively.