Analysts Predict Bullish Shift for Ether Amid Increased Futures Buying Activity

Ethereum (ETH) demonstrated strong performance on Friday, climbing by more than 1.75% over the past 24 hours to trade at $2,673 at press time. This increase follows a notable rise in Bitcoin, which gained over 3% in the same period, crossing the $65,500 threshold. In tandem, the global cryptocurrency market cap experienced a robust 2.65% increase, reaching approximately $2.3 trillion.

Ether’s growth comes on the back of a significant rise in buying activity as observed on-chain. Analyst ShayanBTC from Cryptoquant tweeted on Thursday that Ethereum’s futures market is signaling bullish shift, emphasizing that funding rates were pointing to potential price recovery.

In a detailed post on the firm’s website, de-emphasized the importance of the perpetual futures market in influencing price movements, noting, “The perpetual futures market plays a significant role in driving market price movements, making it essential to assess the sentiment of futures traders for clues about potential price trends.”

The pundit further analyzed Ethereum’s 30-day moving average of funding rates, a crucial metric indicating whether buyers or sellers are more aggressive in executing market orders. Recently, this average has shown a slight bullish shift after a prolonged period of decline.

“The rise in funding rates indicates an increase in buying activity among futures traders, signaling that market participants may be turning more bullish,” he explained. According to the pundit, for Ethereum to maintain its recovery and target higher price levels, demand in the perpetual futures market must continue to rise. A sustained uptrend in funding rates could lead to further price surges in the mid-term, although consistent buying is needed to maintain this momentum.

Various technical analysts also share a bullish outlook for ETH in the long term. “EtherNasyonal” noted on Friday that Ethereum appears to be entering a final accumulation phase similar to the one it experienced in August-September 2020, just before a significant price surge.

According to the pundit, should history rhyme, ETH could surge to $10,000 in the next bull cycle.

However, analyst Alan Satana has voiced concerns about Ethereum’s immediate outlook. In a Wednesday tweet, he observed that the weekly candlestick chart is now showing a bearish trend after a promising start. Stana further pointed out the absence of trading volume, which often indicates weak bullish momentum.

His analysis indicates that since May, each price drop has typically been followed by a couple of green sessions before reverting to a bearish trend. He further cautioned that “the baseline level as support was challenged recently,” projecting a potential price range for lower lows between $1,750 and $1,500, with an even lower range sitting in the low $1,000s.