Ethereum surged strongly past the $3,900 range, supported by robust derivative market activity and increased trading volume.
Ether price approaches the $4K level with Futures Open Interest hitting a record high
On August 8, 2025, the market capitalization of Ethereum (ETH) stood at $470.8 billion, representing 12.2% of the $3.87 trillion cryptocurrency economy. In the past 24 hours, $32.5 billion in ETH transactions were recorded, with a daily range from $3,806 to $3,972. This price surge also triggered heavy derivative liquidations, totaling $103.10 million in ETH positions — $76.15 million of which were short bets — resulting in $284.58 million in liquidations across the broader cryptocurrency market.
The 4-hour chart shows Ethereum recovering from $3,351 on August 3 to nearly $3,972 earlier today, marking a steady increase with several large volume breakout candles. A correction is currently occurring near the highs. On the daily chart, ETH has climbed from $2,475 at the end of July, pausing at minor resistance levels before accelerating towards nearly $4,000.
The open interest of ETH futures reached $52.19 billion (13.38 million ETH), with the largest concentrations on CME, Binance, and Bybit. CME holds 1.63 million ETH in open interest ($6.35 billion), Binance 2.64 million ETH ($10.30 billion), and Bybit 1.23 million ETH ($4.78 billion). Other top exchanges include OKX, Gate, Bitget, WhiteBIT, Kucoin, BingX, and MEXC.
The change in open interest over the past 24 hours shows increases for CME (+6.71%), Binance (+1.87%), and Bybit (+3.42%), while OKX, Gate, and KuCoin all reported declines. The OI/volume ratio is highest on CME at 1.6627, reflecting deep institutional investment.
In ETH options, total open interest leans towards calls with 67.46% (2.045 million ETH) compared to 32.54% being puts (986,253 ETH). In the past day, call options accounted for 57.11% of trading volume (288,565 ETH), while put options made up 42.89% (216,753 ETH).
Prominent ETH options by open interest include a $6,000 call option expiring on December 26, 2025 (60,644 ETH) and a $4,000 call option expiring on September 26, 2025 (54,738 ETH). The most actively traded options in the past 24 hours were the $4,000 calls expiring on December 26, 2025 (25,626 ETH) and the $3,200 calls expiring on September 26, 2025 (20,004 ETH).
With both the futures and options markets showing concentrated interest in call options, the derivatives structure indicates a bullish trend as we enter the final quarter of the year. However, high open interest and significant liquidation activity could further increase volatility if price momentum shifts.
