Key Points
- Institutional interest in Ethereum more than doubled in November, hitting a record high of $2.5 billion.
- Ethereum has attracted more flows over the past seven days, outperforming Bitcoin especially during Bitcoin’s recent slump.
The interest of institutional investors in Ethereum (ETH) saw a significant increase in November, with the CME Futures Open Interest reaching a record high of 662,600 ETH, equivalent to about $2.5 billion.
This data, provided by K33 Research, represents a substantial leap from the 350,950 ETH recorded on 4 November, just prior to the U.S Presidential elections.
Ethereum’s Momentum Against Bitcoin
On 25 November, the volume of CME ETH Futures saw an even greater increase. Additionally, the ETH annualized basis, which is the premium that hedge funds receive when they purchase U.S spot ETH ETFs and short ETH Futures, also experienced a rise.
This trend has surpassed the pattern of Bitcoin (BTC) since the U.S elections, as observed by research analyst David Han from Coinbase.
While this surge in institutional interest could potentially boost ETH’s price, it’s important to note that the hedging strategies used by hedge funds could subject the asset to rapid price fluctuations caused by liquidations.
ETHBTC Ratio
Ethereum’s increasing momentum against Bitcoin is also reflected in the ETHBTC ratio, which tracks the altcoin’s performance relative to Bitcoin.
Ethereum has seen more inflows over the past week, as indicated by the nearly 15% increase in the ETHBTC ratio. This suggests that Ethereum has outperformed Bitcoin in recent days, particularly during Bitcoin’s latest downturn.
However, this trend will only be sustainable if the ETHBTC ratio decisively climbs above the 50-day Simple Moving Average (SMA).
A false breakout was observed in early November, which resulted in Ethereum underperforming afterwards. The question now is whether this time will be different, with the ETHBTC ratio currently close to the 50-day MA.
At the time of writing, Ethereum was valued at $3.4K, up 4% in the last 24 hours, with immediate targets at $3500 and $3600.
