Ether derivatives steady after DeFi hacks; $2,600 in view?

Professional ether derivatives metrics show traders keeping positions steady even as the Ethereum ecosystem absorbs several protocol losses and a sizable foundation unstake. Perpetual futures funding ran near a 5% annualized rate on Tuesday, and option call volumes have exceeded puts since May 4.

The annualized funding rate for ETH perpetual futures was about 5%, below a commonly cited neutral range of roughly 6% to 12% but higher than the negative rates observed last week. Option activity on major venues registered higher call volume than put volume over the past two weeks, a pattern visible in put-to-call ratios.

Ether price action has stalled around $2,400. The token reached roughly $2,380 on Sunday and repeatedly failed to hold moves above $2,400 over the past month, with observable selling pressure at that level.

Recent onchain and protocol events have affected market attention. The rsETH bridge associated with Kelp DAO was exploited through LayerZero message spoofing, resulting in losses exceeding $290 million and affecting multiple lenders, including Aave. The Ekubo protocol recorded a loss of about $1.4 million from an EVM v2 swap vulnerability. TrustedVolumes reported a $6.7 million loss tied to a protocol logic error. Security analyses of those incidents attributed the failures to errors in individual protocol code or access controls rather than flaws in Ethereum’s core protocol, the EVM, or layer-2 bridge designs.

Onchain wallet activity also drew notice. The Ethereum Foundation completed sales and an associated unstaking event valued at about $50 million. An early ICO participant moved 10,000 ETH to a new wallet. Market participants have treated those transfers as potential selling or reallocation, contributing to near-term uncertainty.

Macro developments have coincided with these onchain events. The U.S. Consumer Price Index rose to 3.8% in April, and reported real average hourly wages fell 0.5% month over month. Higher energy prices were a factor in the inflation print.

Ethereum’s network-level measures show continued usage and institutional holdings. Ethereum accounts for roughly 53% of Total Value Locked across chains and layer-2s and leads in decentralized application activity when layer-2 ecosystems are included. Spot exchange-traded funds holding Ethereum show about $11.6 billion in assets under management.

Market participants are monitoring funding rates, options flows and macro data for signals of renewed buying or renewed selling pressure. Those indicators will be watched to see if ether can sustain a break above $2,400 and test levels near $2,600.