Key takeaways:

ETH price rallied by 22% on May 8, but demand for spot ETH ETFs and derivatives remains muted. 

President Trump’s reversal on certain altcoins aligns with ETH’s renewed outlook. 

Ether (ETH) posted an impressive 29% gain between May 8 and May 9, likely marking the end of a 10-week bear market that bottomed out at $1,385 on April 9. This sharp move triggered the liquidation of over $400 million in short (sell) ETH futures positions, suggesting that whales and market makers were caught off guard.

Despite the surge, traders have maintained a neutral stance in ETH derivatives. Whether this apparent lack of conviction reflects a genuine trend reversal or merely precedes another test of the $2,000 level remains to be seen.

Ether 3-month futures annualized premium. Source: laevitas.ch

The ETH futures premium has yet to exceed the 5% threshold typically associated with a neutral market, indicating that demand for leveraged bullish positions remains notably limited. ETH’s continued underperformance—trailing the altcoin market capitalization by 17% in 2025—helps explain the prevailing lack of investor confidence.

Some analysts interpret this as an opening for further short covering, while others contend that Ethereum’s core fundamentals have yet to improve meaningfully.

Ethereum maintains leadership in decentralization and TVL

Irrespective of Ether’s price action, recent network upgrades have notably enhanced layer-2 scalability. More importantly, they have helped solidify Ethereum’s position as the leading platform in terms of decentralization and security. This is reflected in Ethereum’s total value locked (TVL), which stands at $64 billion. For comparison, the three largest direct competitors—Solana, BNB Chain, and Tron—collectively hold a total value locked (TVL) of $22.3 billion. 

The limited demand for spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has emerged as a key warning sign. Even Ether’s strongest single-day price performance in four years failed to prevent a third consecutive day of net outflows, according to data from Farside Investors. On May 8 alone, US-listed Ether spot ETFs experienced net outflows totaling $16 million.

Ether US-listed spot ETFs’ daily net flows, USD million. Source: Farside Investors

The muted enthusiasm following Ether’s recent bullish momentum can be partly attributed to the sharp 85% drop in Ethereum network fees from January to April. Reduced network activity lowers overall demand for ETH and negatively affects net staking yields, as the protocol’s burn mechanism relies on competition for data processing.

ETH options markets also offer insight into whether whales and market makers anticipate further downside risks. 

Deribit 30-day ETH options delta skew (put-call). Source: Laevitas.ch

Currently, put (sell) options are trading at similar levels to equivalent call (buy) options, indicating a neutral sentiment. This outcome is somewhat discouraging for Ether bulls. Nevertheless, Ether could regain market attention after US President Donald Trump reversed his position following earlier public endorsements of competing altcoins.

Related: Ether clocks ‘insane’ 20% candle post Pectra — A turning point?

According to a Politico report published on May 8, President Trump felt he had been “used” and had severed ties with the lobbyist who reportedly proposed the idea of a strategic crypto reserve. While Trump’s social media post on March 2 specifically mentioned Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), and XRP, the subsequent March 6 “Digital Asset Stockpile” Executive Order struck a much more reserved tone.

Despite the evident apathy in both the Ether derivatives market and spot ETF flows, a rally toward the $2,700 level remains plausible—especially if investor sentiment shifts in response to the failed lobbying efforts undertaken by some of Ethereum’s competitors.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Strategy founder Michael Saylor says Bitcoin hasn’t reached $150,000 yet because holders without a long-term outlook have been selling off while a new cohort of investors are beginning to enter the market.

“I think we’re going through a rotation right now,” Saylor said on the Coin Stories podcast with Natalie Brunell on May 9.

The lack of “10-year investor mindset” led to Bitcoin sell-off

Saylor said “lots of non-economically interested parties are rotating out of the asset.” However, at the same time, “a new cohort of investors are entering.”

“A lot of Bitcoin, for whatever reason, was left in the hands of the governments and the hands of lawyers, and in the hands of bankruptcy trustees,” he added.

Strategy’s Michael Saylor spoke to Natalie Brunell on the Coin Stories podcast. Source: Natalie Brunell

Saylor said that many of these trustees do not have a “10-year investors mindset,” and as Bitcoin’s (BTC) price began to rally, they took advantage and “thought this is a good exit point to get liquidity.”

“So I think people less committed to the long term have taken the opportunity to exit the market and a whole new class of investors are entering by way of ETFs and by way of Bitcoin treasury companies.”

After Bitcoin reached its all-time high of $109,000 on Jan. 20 just hours before US President Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, it experienced a downtrend, falling as low as $76,273 on April 9, before starting to show signs of recovery.

On May 8, Bitcoin reclaimed $100,000 for the first time since Feb. 1 after US President Donald Trump proposed tariffs. The recent price surge has pushed Strategy’s Bitcoin holdings to 50.27% above their average Bitcoin purchase price of $68,569. At the time of publication, the firm holds 555,450 Bitcoin, valued at approximately $57.23 billion, according to Saylor Tracker data.

Saylor is surprised at US government sentiment shift

Spot Bitcoin ETFs posted $564.7 in inflows over the past five trading days, according to Farside data.

Meanwhile, Saylor said he’s not surprised the US government hasn’t yet bought Bitcoin for its Strategic Bitcoin Reserve which Trump signed an executive order for on March 7. The reserve is holding Bitcoin that was forfeited as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings.

However, Saylor didn’t anticipate their stance to change so quickly following Trump’s inauguration.

Related: Strive to become Bitcoin treasury company

“I was surprised that the US embraced Bitcoin as radically as it has over the last six months, I think I didn’t expect all the Cabinet members to be so enthusiastic,” he said.

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Wall Street giant BlackRock met with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Crypto Task Force to discuss staking within crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) and tokenization of securities. The discussion could advance institutional interest in the crypto industry.

According to a May 9 memo published by the task force, BlackRock sought to “[d]iscuss perspectives on treatment of staking, including considerations for facilitating ETPs with staking capabilities.” The company has previously said that Ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds, while successful, are less perfect without staking.

Other crypto ETF issuers share that view. On Feb. 15, the New York Stock Exchange proposed a rule change to introduce staking services for Grayscale’s spot Ether ETFs. In April, the SEC delayed a decision on whether to approve or disapprove the rule change. BlackRock and Grayscale are behind the largest Ether ETFs by market capitalization, according to Sosovalue.

Ethereum ETFs as of May 8. Source: Sosovalue

Many blockchains rely on proof-of-stake consensus mechanisms that allow users to lock their native coins for yield. A potential SEC approval of staking for Ether ETFs could lead to future requests among altcoins, including Solana (SOL) ETFs.

Tokenization on the agenda

BlackRock also discussed “tokenization of securities under federal securities regulatory framework.” Securities are traditional financial instruments where the investor expects monetary gain, such as bonds and stocks. Tokenizing securities has many benefits, including faster settlement times, lower costs than with traditional finance infrastructure, and 24-hour markets.

BlackRock already offers a US federal debt tokenized fund called BUIDL, the largest fund with a $2.9 billion market cap. Competing products include Franklin Templeton’s BENJI fund.

Brokerage firm Robinhood is also exploring securities tokenization. The company is reportedly working on a blockchain that would allow retail investors in Europe to trade US securities like stocks.

Magazine: Ethereum is destroying the competition in the $16.1T TradFi tokenization race