According to The Block, Ethereum's derivatives market may be signaling a bullish trend as the unliquidated futures contracts surged over 12% on Friday, reaching a record $20.8 billion. According to a report by CryptoQuant, in the past week, Ethereum's OI weighted futures funding rate has soared several times, setting new historical highs and indicating that bullish traders dominate. "The CryptoQuant report added that according to Coinglass data, the current funding rate is 0.0374%, which suggests that market sentiment is optimistic about price increases in the short term.
In addition, Ethereum's estimated leverage ratio (the measure of open contracts divided by exchange reserves) has climbed to a new record high of 0.40. This indicates that traders are increasing their risk exposure as they use higher leverage to amplify potential returns. However, the CryptoQuant report warns that an increase in leverage and dominance of long positions could increase the risk of long squeezes; sudden price fluctuations could trigger liquidations leading to market adjustments.