Ether’s price has sustained a recovery above $2,300, fueled by significant institutional accumulation from spot ETFs and companies like Bitmine Immersion. However, the rally faces skepticism as futures market data shows a lack of bullish conviction and Ethereum network activity and revenue from decentralized applications continue to decline sharply.
Ether’s price held above $2,300 on Wednesday, distancing itself from late-March lows. The rally pushed aggregate ETH futures open interest to $25.4 billion, signaling a potential shift in momentum after weeks of struggling to reclaim $2,400.
Despite this, the ETH perpetual futures annualized funding rate frequently dipped below 0%, indicating excess demand for bearish leveraged positions. This metric has failed to sustain levels above 5% since last Friday, suggesting traders lack confidence in the upward move.
Institutional spot demand appears to be driving the price action. U.S.-listed Ether spot exchange-traded funds recorded $248 million in net inflows over ten days, according to data from SoSoValue. Simultaneously, digital asset treasury company Bitmine Immersion announced acquiring $312 million worth of ETH.
Bitmine now holds 4.87 million ETH, valued at approximately $11.46 billion. This accumulation comes as the company’s ETH holdings trade 13% below their acquisition cost, and total Ether ETF assets under management have fallen from $20.5 billion to $13.7 billion in three months.
Investor appetite is also challenged by declining activity across nearly all decentralized application sectors. Ethereum’s weekly DApps revenue has plummeted to $11 million, down from $24 million in early February, as competition from other blockchains intensifies. The primary incentive for holding ETH relies on expected onchain demand and its subsequent token burn mechanism.
