While Ethereum’s Open Interest sees a jump, its funding rates oscillate between neutral and negative, suggesting an unclear direction in the coin’s futures market.futures Open Interest has risen by 9% since the beginning of September despite the coin’s narrow price movements within that period.Open Interest refers to the total number of outstanding contracts in a derivatives market. It is a measure of the overall activity in a market and can be used to gauge investor sentiment.
However, the month-long uptick in Open Interest has been accompanied by “neutral to negative” funding rates, crypto research firm Kaiko noted in a recent post on X .On the other hand, negative funding rates indicate that sellers are paying buyers to keep their contracts open, which suggests that the market is bearish.
When an asset’s price trades this way, it suggests that selling pressure significantly outweighs buying momentum.