Ether (ETH) fell below $2,000 on Thursday for the first time since late March, down 8% over the past week and 5% in the last 24 hours amid broad market risk aversion.
Despite the price slide, ether futures open interest hit a record high of 16.39 million tokens, worth about $32.5 billion. A negative cumulative volume delta combined with falling spot prices points to aggressive net selling by traders taking bearish bets via market orders.
Spot Ether ETFs have seen $401 million in outflows this month, reversing April's $354 million inflow. The Ethereum Foundation has faced high-profile departures, including key contributors Carl Beekhuizen and Julian Ma. Bankless co-founder David Hoffman recently sold his ETH holdings, saying the thesis of "ETH is money" has played out.
Analysts suggest the market is questioning how Ethereum's dominance in DeFi and tokenization translates back to its native token. Web3 research firm House of Chimera noted that while Ethereum leads in ecosystem activity, prices and sentiment can weaken faster than developer commitment.