Analyst: ETH market has shifted from spot-driven to highly speculative

The Ethereum market has lost its spot-driven structure and become highly speculative, a significant shift from previous cycles, according to an analysis by CryptoQuant contributor Darkfost. Darkfost argued that in the past, Ethereum's trading was dominated by the spot market, which led to healthier and more sustainable bull runs. The current environment, however, is characterized by a strong sentiment for quick profits, creating less stability. The analysis highlights that current open interest and trading volumes for ETH are incomparably larger than before. On Binance alone, ETH trading volume has already surpassed $6 trillion this year, a two- to threefold increase from the previous year. Furthermore, Binance's ETH open interest exceeded $12.5 billion as of August, approximately five times higher than its previous all-time high of $2.5 billion set in November 2021. This data indicates that the ETH market in the current cycle is exceptionally speculative and has grown more volatile, the contributor concluded.