Data shows the investors in the Ethereum derivatives market have been taking on very high leverage recently, something that could lead to volatility for the asset.
Ethereum Estimated Leverage Ratio Has Been At Extreme Levels Recently
As pointed out by an analyst in a CryptoQuant Quicktake , the ETH Estimated Leverage Ratio has been on the up recently. The “Estimated Leverage Ratio” (ELR) refers to an indicator that keeps track of the ratio between the Ethereum Open Interest and Exchange Reserve.
The former of these, the Open Interest, here is a measure of the total amount of derivatives positions related to ETH that are currently open on all centralized exchanges.
The second metric, the Exchange Reserve, naturally tells us about the total number of tokens of the cryptocurrency that are sitting in wallets attached to all exchanges.
When the ELR’s value rises, it means that the Open Interest is increasing at a faster rate than the Exchange Reserve. Such a trend implies that investors are opting for a higher amount of leverage on average. On the other hand, a decline in the indicator suggests the derivatives market users are moving towards a lower amount of risk as they are deleveraging their positions.
Now, here is a chart that shows the trend in the Ethereum ELR over the last few years:
As displayed in the above graph, the Ethereum ELR has observed some steep growth recently. This sudden sharp uptrend in the asset came about as news around the spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) gained traction in the buildup to the approval.
The cryptocurrency’s price also registered a sharp rally during the same time. Thus, the conditions were perfect for attracting fresh speculation related to the coin, so it’s not surprising that the indicator’s value saw a spike.
The rise has also continued beyond the approval of the ETFs, but the price has fallen to a sideways movement. It would appear that the investors are willing to take even higher risk despite this consolidation, trying to bet big on where Ethereum could escape from here.
Historically, a high value of the leverage ratio has meant a higher volatility for the asset’s price. This is because mass liquidation events can become more probable to take place when the investors are sitting in overleveraged positions.
With ETH trading sideways recently and all these positions building up, it might take only one break in either direction before a lot of these positions come crashing down. A large number of such liquidations happening at once would only fuel further into the price move that caused them, thus amplifying it.
It now remains to be seen how the Ethereum price develops in the coming days and if a volatile move is waiting for it given the trend in the ELR.
ETH Price
May has been a good time for Ethereum investors as the asset is looking to close the month with positive returns of more than 18%.
Featured image from Dall-E, CryptoQuant.com, chart from TradingView.com
Keshav is currently a senior writer at NewsBTC and has been attached to the website since June 14, 2021.
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Keshav has been writing for many years, first as a hobbyist and later as a freelancer. He has experience working in a variety of niches, even fiction at one point, but the cryptocurrency industry has been the longest he has been attached to.
In terms of official educational qualifications, Keshav holds a bachelor’s degree in Physics from one of the premier institutes of India, the University of Delhi (DU). He started the degree with an aim of eventually making a career in Physics, but the onset of COVID led to a shift in plans. The virus meant that the college classes had to be delivered in the online-mode and with it came free time for him to explore other passions.
Initially only seeking to make some beer money, Keshav unexpectedly landed clients offering real projects, after which there was no looking back. Writing was something he had always enjoyed and to be able to do it for a living was like a dream come true.
Keshav completed his Physics degree in 2022 and has been focusing on his writing career since, but that doesn’t mean his passion for Physics has ended. He eventually plans to re-enter university to obtain a masters degree in the same field, but perhaps only to satiate his own interest rather than for using it as a means to find employment..
Keshav has found blockchain and its concepts fascinating ever since he started going down the rabbit-hole back in 2020. On-chain analysis in particular has been something he likes to research more about, which is why his NewsBTC pieces tend to involve it in some form.
Being of the science background, Keshav likes if concepts are clear and consistent, so he generally explains the indicators he talks about in a bit of detail so that the readers can perhaps come out having understood and learnt something new.
As for hobbies, Keshav is super into football, anime, and videogames. He enjoys football not only as a watcher, but also as a player. For games, Keshav generally tends towards enjoying singleplayer adventures, with EA FC (formerly FIFA) being the only online game he is active in. Though, perhaps due to being ultra-focused on the game, he is today a semi-pro on the EA FC scene, regularly participating in tournaments and sometimes even taking back prize money.
Because of his enthusiasm for anime and games, he also self-learned Japanese along the way to consume some of the untranslated gems out there. The skill didn’t merely remain as just a hobby, either, as he put it to productive use during his exploration for small-time gigs at the start of COVID, fulfilling a couple of Japanese-to-English translation jobs.
Keshav is also big into fitness, with agility and acceleration-related workouts making a big part of his program due to the relevance they have in football. On top of that, he also has a more traditional strength based program for the gym, which he does to maintain an overall fitness level of his body.
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