Increasing inequality between institutional and retail investors could determine the direction Ethereum (ETH) heads into the new week. At the time of writing, the asset is up just 1.1% in the past day and has recorded impressive double-digit gains over the past thirty days.
However, this sentiment may change direction as persistently rising tensions in the futures market imply that retail investors will turn bearish and start selling towards the end of the week.
Enterprise streams are on the rise
Ethereum It has remained fairly stable around $1,800 over the past day, with institutional investor flows also being a major contributor.
At the close of Friday’s trading session, SoSoValue reported that these investors recorded a weekly net buying flow of $84.4 million. This was the first weekly net buying in the last nine weeks of trading.
Only one day during the week saw net sales; July 9, when investors unloaded $52.08 million and Ethereum fell to $1,748.
Therefore, such a reversal after such a long period of selling generally signals that institutional investors are recalibrating their perspective and may look to add capital to identify US Ethereum ETFs. This new demand could help push the asset’s price higher in the near term.
Retail investors are turning the other way
Meanwhile, retail investors continued to move in the opposite direction, going against the bullish outlook that institutions were leaning towards.
Selling volume has increased on the Ethereum permanent market in the last 24 hours. At the time of this writing, the subsequent Long/Short Ratio had fallen to 0.946.
When the ratio falls below 1, as it does here, it indicates a growing seller base in the market. However, the main concern remains the increasing pressure on key venues such as OKX and Bybit.
According to CoinGlass, whales, the highly liquid players on these exchanges, were labeled “extremely bearish.” For context, the two exchanges control $4.10 billion and $1.19 billion, respectively, in total ongoing trading volume.
Moreover, the bearish trend of these players adds more weight to ETH and could drag the asset lower on the chart.
Short sellers are stepping into ETH
Some retail investors are already bearish, and data shows one trader opened a massive short position worth $12.43 million in ETH ahead of further losses.
But for now, overall liquidation data suggests short sellers may still be at risk. Total liquidations in the market continue to work against short investors, who lost $11.49 million during the period compared to $8.30 million on the long side.
On the contrary, data shows that the market is still more bearish than bullish. As retail traders try to determine the course of a decline, they can easily bear the brunt of it.
Final Summary
- Institutional investors bought Ethereum for the first time in nine weeks; This is a sign that big money is warming up to the asset again.
- Retail traders moved in the opposite direction, selling off towards the end of the week and starting a tug-of-war that could decide ETH’s next move.
