Key takeaways:

• Ether Exchange funds saw an inflow of $71 million, signaling powerful institutional appetite.

• Weekly decentralized exchange volume doubled to $20 billion, narrowing the revenue gap with Solana.

The price of ether (ETH) failed to stay above $2,000 on Thursday, leaving traders to evaluate potential catalysts for a market turnaround. While optimism has waned since Friday’s crash to $1,745, both ETF flows and ETH derivatives indicators are showing early signs of a reversal.

Traders are now wondering if there is enough momentum to move towards $2,400.

US-listed Ether ETFs recently snapped a three-day streak of outflows, attracting $71 million in modern capital between Monday and Tuesday. Most importantly, assets under management have stabilized at $13 billion, which is sufficient to maintain institutional interest. ETFs currently have average daily trading volume of over $1.65 billion, a level of liquidity that allows participation by the world’s largest hedge funds.

To put Ether ETFs in perspective, the State Street Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE US) – the largest in the US energy sector – is averaging $1.5 billion per day. This instrument tracks the combined market capitalization of $2 trillion in companies such as Exxon (XOM US), Chevron (CVX US), ConocoPhillips (COP US), The Williams Companies (WMB) and Kinder Morgan (KMI US).

ETH indices and ETF inflows signal a potential market recovery

While institutional appetite for ETF trading is a positive indicator, it does not guarantee that ETH derivative demand will be inherently bullish.

On Wednesday, the annual premium (base rate) of ETH futures remained below the neutral 5% threshold. The lack of demand for bullish leverage has been a consistent theme over the past three months. However, the rate stabilized at 3% even though the ETH price reached its lowest level in nine months. These derivatives markets are showing moderate resilience, which remains an encouraging sign for Ether investors.

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Ether price weakness pushed Ethereum’s total value locked (TVL) to $54.2 billion, up from $71.2 billion a month earlier, according to DefiLlama data. Reduced deposits in the network’s shrewd contracts are a major risk as lower on-chain fees reduce revenue from native staking. Moreover, Ethereum’s supply burn mechanism remains dependent on excessive blockchain processing demand.

Despite these deteriorating conditions, demand for Ethereum decentralized applications (DApps) will gradually augment throughout 2026.

Weekly decentralized exchange (DEX) volumes on the Ethereum network rose to $20 billion, up from $9.8 billion a month earlier. This increased activity resulted in DApps revenue reaching $26.6 million in the seven days ending February 8, a solid indicator of ETH demand. While Solana remains the clear leader with $31.1 million in weekly DApps revenue, the gap between the two networks is narrowing.

Those monitoring Ether prices are solely failing to recognize that ETH onchain and derivative metrics have shown resilience, especially after inflows into Ether ETFs resume. While it may take several weeks for investors to fully regain confidence, there are powerful indications that a short-term rally towards $2,400 is possible.