Last summer, the unsettled contract volume of Ethereum (ETH) futures reached a peak exceeding $120 million, but has since dropped to about $58 million. This corresponds roughly to 7.7024 trillion won, and during the same period price fell by about half, indicating that changes in quantity and price are mutually interacting.
From a market perspective, unsettled contracts represent the size of positions that have not yet been closed. The dollar value shown reflects not only contract quantity but also the initial price, so it is hard to judge whether traders actually reduced buying or selling merely from the decrease in dollar amount. Analyst BaykusCharts of CryptoQuant, in an analysis on 28th, saw ‘position liquidation’ as main cause of this decline and argued that price fall had biggest impact.
Meanwhile, the margin debt ratio has fallen from the high levels seen in early 2021 and early 2024. Although several negative numbers have been recorded this year, it is now slightly below zero. BaykusCharts interpreted that positions were not overly concentrated on either side of buying or selling. Along with this, Ethereum positions using leverage remain substantial, but there was insufficient conviction about strong directional movement.
Finally, Binance's Ethereum futures unsettled contract volume rose from about $48 million at end of August to $65.8 million. At that time price and volume increased together; but this analysis stresses that one must divide dollar-based size by ETH quantity for interpretation. This warns investors to reassess position risk.