Open interest in ether perpetual futures has surged across major centralized cryptocurrency derivatives exchanges since the beginning of February. Open interest for ETH +0.52% futures across different exchanges is currently over $10.1 billion, according to Coinglass.

The total number of outstanding perpetual futures contracts for ether on the Deribit cryptocurrency derivatives exchange has reached an all-time high. The open interest on Deribit now stands at over $690 million, data shows.

A perpetual contract is a type of futures contract with no expiration date and allows traders to hold positions indefinitely.

The uptick in open interest suggests a heightened level of trading activity and engagement with ether derivatives. This suggests a potential rise in market attention, speculation, or hedging activities linked to ether, particularly in anticipation of potential upcoming price catalysts.

One such catalyst could be the potential approval of a spot ether ETF by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the coming months. For example, the investment firm Franklin Templeton joined other asset managers in taking the initial step towards potentially issuing a spot ether ETF by filing an S-1 registration statement with the SEC on Monday.

Ether futures perpetual open interest hits all-time high on Deribit. Image: Deribit.

According to The Block's Data Dashboard, daily ether futures open interest on Binance, ByBit, OKX and CME have also increased. Of these centralized exchanges, data shows that ether futures open interest on Binance has hit a multi-month high of almost $3 billion.

Ether futures funding rate increases

Since the beginning of February, the funding rate for ether perpetual futures contracts on the Deribit centralized derivatives exchange has increased from 0.00045% to a current value of 0.035%. When the funding rate increases, it means that long positions (buyers) are paying more to short positions (sellers).

Funding rates for ether perpetual futures contracts have increased since the beginning of February. Image: Deribit.

This indicates a growing demand for long futures positions in the derivatives market for ether. The uptick could reflect a more bullish sentiment toward the digital asset, implying that a greater number of traders anticipate an upward movement in the price of ether in coming months.

The price of ether increased 1.57% to $2,841 at 7:57 a.m. ET, according to The Block's Price Page.

The price of ether increased by over 1% in the past 24 hours. Image: The Block.