Ethereum Open Interest Declines $2B , Derivatives Trading Comes to a Halt

News from Gate, April 21 — Over the past week, Ethereum's derivatives market experienced a significant deleveraging event, with traders closing over $2 billion in futures positions.
According to Coinglass data, Ethereum's open interest has fallen to $12.4 billion, marking the second major "crash-like" liquidation event within 30 days.
Despite reduced derivatives activity, ETH price remains above $2,300.
Negative funding rates indicate bearish sentiment, with 34% of open contracts holding short positions.
The largest negative funding rate appeared on a major CEX, reaching 0.0058%.
Ethereum's "Fear and Greed Index" stands at 53, indicating a neutral sentiment as traders wait for better entry points.
On-chain data shows that the two leading whale addresses on Hyperliquid hold positions that are perfectly balanced between short and long, each holding 20,000 ETH;
As of now, short positions carry over $8 million USD in unrealized losses, while long positions show over $376,000 in unrealized gains.
Deleveraging is mainly concentrated on large exchanges, with Gate's ETH perpetual contract open interest dropping sharply from $4.67 billion on April 14 to $2.88 billion.
This decline coincides with the time of the Kelp DAO hack, with up to $210 million USD worth of ETH potentially facing liquidation.
Whales have closed positions to lock in profits after ETH stabilized above $2,300;
Historical data shows spot accumulation continues, with over 2,430 wallets actively buying ETH in the spot market.
Despite outflows from derivatives, long-term bullish signals remain.
Over 2.7 million ETH are waiting to be deposited into the Beacon Chain for staking, and whales holding over 100,000 ETH are still in profit.
Structurally accumulated wallets show the highest activity, indicating market confidence in ETH's utility—as collateral in DeFi and as a staking asset.
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