Analysis: Ethereum futures open interest hit a record high as it fell below $2,000, indicating rising bearish sentiment in the market.

According to ME News, on May 28th (UTC+8), ETH fell below $2,000, the first time since March of this year. Over the past seven days, ETH has fallen nearly 8%, with a drop of over 5% in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, ETH futures open interest (OI) rose for the third consecutive day, reaching a record high of 16.39 million ETH, with a notional value of approximately $32.5 billion. Analysts believe that the continued rise in OI against the backdrop of falling spot prices indicates more aggressive leveraged short selling in the market. Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, stated that more and more investors are abandoning ETH, "ETH doesn't generate cash flow, and with rising US Treasury yields, the attractiveness of staking yields has decreased." Furthermore, the US spot ETH ETF has seen a net outflow of $401 million this month, completely reversing the $354 million net inflow in April. Market sentiment has also continued to deteriorate due to the departure of a core member of the Ethereum Foundation. David Hoffman, co-founder of Bankless, previously stated that he had sold his ETH holdings, believing that the narrative of "ETH as currency" has been fully priced in. Web3 research firm House of Chimera stated that the market is questioning whether the advantages of the Ethereum ecosystem in DeFi, RWA, and tokenization can truly translate into ETH itself. (Source: ME)