As the anticipation for the approval of a spot Ethereum (ETH) exchange-traded fund (ETF) grows, traders are increasingly favoring ETH over Bitcoin (BTC).

Rising ETH Open Interest

According to a recent CryptoQuant report, the ETH-BTC open interest ratio has risen from 0.54 to 0.67 over the past week. This trend indicates that traders are gaining more exposure to Ethereum, driven by the expectations surrounding the spot ETH ETF approval.

Data from Santiment reveals that the total open interest in ETH currently stands at $8.53 billion. Additionally, the aggregated funding rate for Ethereum has increased from 0.016% to 0.018% over the past 24 hours.

The indicator shows that the number of traders betting on a further ETH price surge has risen, leading to potential large liquidations due to high price volatility.

Increased Demand from Permanent Holders

The demand for Ethereum has also surged among “Permanent Holders” — investors who buy and hold the asset without selling, excluding exchange addresses. As per CryptoQuant, these addresses accumulated over 100,000 ETH on May 20, marking the highest level since September 2023.

Exchange Inflows

Despite this growing accumulation, Ethereum’s net inflows into exchanges reached 62,000 tokens on May 20. Most of these assets moved to major exchanges like Binance and Bybit, according to CryptoQuant data.

Decline in Whale Transactions

Santiment data shows that the number of whale transactions, consisting of at least $100,000 worth of ETH, declined by 40% in the past 24 hours, currently sitting at 10,689 transactions per day. This trend, combined with the exchange inflows, suggests that investors are awaiting the ETH ETF approval, leading to expected high price volatility due to short-term profit-taking by traders.

Current Market Performance

ETH has increased by 1.7% in the past 24 hours, trading at $1,810 at the time of writing. The asset’s market cap stands at $457 billion, with a daily trading volume of $24.6 billion.

It’s crucial to note that Ethereum could experience significant downward momentum if the U.S. SEC rejects or delays the spot ETH ETF approvals.

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