ETH Futures: Why Ether Is Falling Faster Than Bitcoin This Week

ETH futures are falling faster than bitcoin because ether is losing its steadiest buyers at the moment its leverage was heaviest. The ETHUSDT perpetual on WEEX traded at $2,497.95 at about 07:12 UTC on Oct. 9, 2026, down 2.64% in 24 hours against 0.40% for BTC, after a low of $2,405.45. The ETH/BTC ratio stood at 0.03026, down 9.2% in seven days.

Below: how ETH liquidations compare with bitcoin's, the three sources of demand that are fading, the price levels in play, and how to size an ETH futures position for a market that moves 7% in a day.

ETH Liquidations Ran at Six Times Bitcoin's Rate

Ether took more liquidations than bitcoin in absolute dollars despite being a fraction of its size. In the 24 hours to about 04:00 UTC on Oct. 9, roughly $1.19 billion of crypto futures positions were liquidated. Ether accounted for about $356 million and bitcoin about $298 million. Ether's market value is roughly a fifth of bitcoin's, so relative to size its positions were wiped out at about six times the rate.

The wipeout was one-sided. A separate count put ETH liquidations at $351.6 million, of which $294.6 million were longs and $57 million shorts.

WEEX's own numbers show the same imbalance. At about 07:12 UTC on Oct. 9:

• ETHUSDT perpetual volume was 4.26 billion USDT in 24 hours, 82% of the 5.21 billion USDT traded in the BTCUSDT perpetual
• ETH perpetual volume was 9.6 times ETH/USDT spot volume on WEEX, against 6.0 times for bitcoin
• ETH's 24-hour range was 7.1%, from $2,405.45 to $2,576.33, against 3.9% for BTC
• ETH funding was +0.000544%, effectively zero, while BTC funding was +0.006329%

The funding gap is the most useful line in that list. Bitcoin longs are still paying about 6.9% annualized to hold. Ether longs are paying almost nothing, and the open-interest-weighted rate across exchanges was slightly negative on Oct. 7. The leverage that was leaning long in ether has largely been cleared. That lowers the odds of another forced cascade, and it also shows nobody is paying up to be long.

Options traders see it the same way. Deribit's ether volatility index stood at 49.50 on Oct. 9, against 36.26 for bitcoin.

Three Buyers Ether Is Losing

Price falls hardest where the natural buyers step back. Three have, in the same fortnight.

ETF investors. U.S. spot ether ETFs have posted eight straight sessions of net outflows from Sept. 29 to Oct. 8, totaling $641.3 million on Farside data. That is roughly 257,000 ETH at the current price. Oct. 6 alone saw $201.9 million leave.

The largest corporate buyer. BitMine held 6,016,414 ETH as of Oct. 4, about 88,586 ETH short of its target of 5% of supply. At its recent pace of roughly 15,112 ETH a week, that bid runs out in about six weeks. BitMine has announced no sales and has 5,067,309 ETH staked. Its position was carrying an unrealized loss of about $3.6 billion on Oct. 6 at an implied cost near $3,300, and ether is now 24% below that level.

Stakers leaving. The validator exit queue held 787,340 ETH on Oct. 9, a 13.7-day wait and about $2 billion at the current price. Part of it traces to an incident at MetaMask's staking service. On-chain data from Bitquery showed 565,056 ETH across 16,965 validators exited or queued as of Oct. 1, a total MetaMask has not confirmed. Exiting is not selling, and the entry queue is larger at 1,385,340 ETH. The timing is what matters for futures traders: exit-queue coins become liquid in under two weeks.

Two more data points lean the same way. Exchange reserves rose by 233,000 ETH in two weeks, and wallets holding 10,000 to 100,000 ETH reduced their balances by 151,000 ETH.

None of this is a verdict on Ethereum. It explains why ether behaves like bitcoin with extra leverage and weaker flows when macro turns, and why the ETH/BTC ratio does most of its falling on days like Oct. 8.

ETH Price Levels: $2,450 Below, $2,578 Above

Below the market:

• $2,450: the heaviest long-liquidation cluster, about 1.9% under the last price
• $2,405: the WEEX perpetual's 24-hour low
• $2,355, then $2,338: nearby support and the 100-day exponential moving average
• $2,204: the next support cited if those give way

Above the market:

• $2,561: the 100-week exponential moving average. Analyst Ted Pillows warns that a weekly close below it opens $2,400 and then $2,100
• $2,578: the level analyst Alex Marzell says must be reclaimed to reopen $2,700
• $2,650: max pain for the Oct. 9 Deribit expiry, which covered 123,000 ETH options worth about $320 million with a put/call ratio of 0.71

Ether is trading under its 100-week average with the weekly close due this weekend. That close matters more than any intraday level on this list. Ether is 49.6% below its all-time high of $4,953.73, set on Aug. 24, 2025, and about 11% below its late-September high near $2,804.

What Could Turn ETH Futures Around

A flow change, more than a headline. The first thing to watch is the ETF streak. One day of inflows after eight of outflows would not fix the trend, but it would remove the most visible daily seller.

The second is the ratio. If bitcoin holds $80,000 and ETH/BTC stops making new lows near 0.030, relative-value shorts start to cover.

The network roadmap is not a near-term catalyst. The Glamsterdam upgrade, which brings enshrined proposer-builder separation and block-level access lists, went live on the Sepolia testnet on Oct. 6. No mainnet date has been set. The last upgrade to ship on mainnet was Fusaka on Dec. 3, 2025.

Macro is shared with bitcoin: September CPI on Oct. 14 and the Fed decision on Oct. 28. Ether moved about 1.8 times as far as bitcoin over the past 24 hours, so the same data lands harder on ETH positions.

Trading ETH Futures on WEEX: Sizing for a 7% Day

The ETHUSDT perpetual on WEEX displays up to 400x leverage. The past 24 hours show why almost none of that range is usable for a position held longer than a few minutes.

• A 7.1% range equals 71% of margin at 10x. At 15x, the day's range is larger than the margin.
• The same leverage on ETH carried about 1.8 times the price risk of BTC over this period, going by the two 24-hour ranges.
• Funding is near zero, so holding a long costs little right now. Shorts are not being paid to wait either.

A practical rule: pick ETH leverage by halving whatever would be used on bitcoin, then place the stop beyond the $2,450 cluster or not at all. The Ethereum price page has the longer-term chart, and ETH/USDT spot is the route for exposure without liquidation risk.

FAQ

1. Why is ETH down more than BTC this week?

Ether had more leverage relative to its size and weaker demand. ETH liquidations reached about $356 million against $298 million for bitcoin in 24 hours, spot ether ETFs have seen eight straight days of outflows totaling $641.3 million, and ETH/BTC fell 9.2% in seven days.

2. What is the ETH funding rate right now?

On WEEX it was +0.000544% at about 07:12 UTC on Oct. 9, 2026, close to zero. Bitcoin's was +0.006329% at the same time. Near-zero funding means leveraged longs have mostly been flushed.

3. Is BitMine selling its ETH?

No sales have been announced. BitMine held 6,016,414 ETH as of Oct. 4 and was still buying, but it is about 88,586 ETH from its 5% target, so its purchases are set to end in roughly six weeks at the recent pace.

4. When does the Glamsterdam upgrade go live on mainnet?

No mainnet date has been set. Glamsterdam went live on the Sepolia testnet on Oct. 6, 2026, and the Hoodi testnet date has not been confirmed by the Ethereum Foundation.