Ethereum Price Forecast: Derivatives yet to establish direction, investors turn to staking

Ethereum price today: $2,060

Ethereum open interest rose to 14.6 million ETH, but funding rates show investors have yet to establish a direction.
Investors have staked a record 38.1 million ETH across Ethereum staking protocols.
ETH has failed to break above the 50-day EMA.

Ethereum's open interest (OI) jumped to 14.6 million ETH on Thursday, its highest level since August, amid the recent price drop.

Open interest is the total worth of unsettled contracts in a derivatives market. Notably, ETH's open interest has been steadily rising over the past two months, up nearly 20% despite prices remaining flat.

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While the figure in dollar terms is far from the levels seen last August, it still shows that interest in ETH derivatives is gradually returning.

However, the continuous negative and positive flashes in ETH's funding rates indicate that the open interest growth is flowing to both long and short positions, meaning the market has yet to find direction.

While derivatives lag, investors are turning to ETH staking to generate yield. The supply of staked ETH has risen to a record high of over 38.1 million ETH, while assets waiting in line to join staking are at 2.8 million ETH, per Validator Queue data.

The growth comes at a time when Ethereum treasury firm BitMine Immersion (BMNR) is launching its institutional staking platform, Made in America Validator Network (MAVAN).

ETH Total Supply Staked. Source: Validator Queue

MAVAN, originally designed to support BitMine's Ethereum treasury, is being positioned as the go-to platform for institutions seeking professional validator operations.

"MAVAN represents a critical step in our vision to build one of the leading staking and on-chain infrastructure platforms globally," said BitMine Chairman Thomas Lee in a Wednesday statement.

BitMine claims that the platform will use US-based infrastructure to serve institutional investors, custodians, and ecosystem partners, with a focus on security, performance and resilience.

The move comes as BitMine deployed additional ETH into staking. The firm noted that it staked 101,776 ETH last week, lifting its total staked assets to 3.14 million ETH.

BitMine claims it's the largest public holder of the top altcoin, with a stash of 4.66 million ETH, which could earn $300 million annually when fully staked.

Ethereum Price Forecast: ETH falters at 50-day EMA

Ethereum recorded $110.4 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, led by $99.7 million in long liquidations, according to Coinglass data.

In the daily chart, ETH trades at $2,060. The near-term bias stays neutral, with a slight downside tilt, as price holds below the 20-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) near $2,110 and well below the 50- and 100-day EMAs clustered around $2,185 and $2,440, preserving a broader corrective context.

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) around 46 indicates a loss of bullish momentum without oversold conditions, while the Stochastic Oscillator (Stoch) near 10 signals short-term downside exhaustion rather than a trend reversal. This configuration points to range-bound trade with weak bullish conviction unless buyers can reclaim the short-term average.

Immediate resistance emerges at the 50-day EMA, where ETH has continued to face rejection and then at the $2,108, where a horizontal cap converges with the descending 20-day EMA. A daily close above this area would open the way toward $2,389 as the next upside barrier.

On the downside, initial support sits far below at $1,741, followed by $1,524, levels that define the lower band of the prevailing medium-term range. As long as ETH remains trapped between $2,108 and $1,741, traders would expect directionless price action, as a sustained break on either side is required to establish a clearer trend leg.

(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool.)