Ether Open Interest Hits New Highs on Binance: Are Bulls Back?

Ether traders are increasing leveraged long positions even as the token is down 44% in 2026. Binance's futures open interest climbed to a record 3.7 million ETH, accounting for more than 44% of total Ether futures, and crypto analyst Darkfost noted futures activity has improved despite rising uncertainty from geopolitical tensions and weakening economic conditions.

Risk appetite for long positions has shifted. Binance’s weekly average taker buy-sell ratio rose to 1.0 from 0.95 after months of seller-led activity, and across all exchanges the ratio increased to 1 from 0.94 over the past two weeks, indicating buyers are becoming more active in market orders than sellers.

Speculative activity is accelerating faster than spot demand. Binance's perp-spot volume imbalance climbed to roughly 0.90 with a 30-day Z-score of 2.53; perpetual futures volume stood near 5.57 million ETH compared with about 290,000 ETH in spot trading, suggesting leveraged participation is expanding far more quickly than activity in the underlying market.

ether, binance, open interest, futures, perpetual futures, leverage, spot trading, taker ratio, perp-spot imbalance, darkfost