Ethereum traded near $1,800 after gaining about 3% between Thursday and Friday, supported by renewed demand for spot exchange-traded funds and continued growth in tokenized assets. The move outpaced the major crypto assets, yet futures data showed retail traders were still selling into the weekend.
The split leaves ETH caught between institutional buying and weak short-term sentiment. Spot Ethereum ETFs recorded their first weekly inflow in nine weeks, while the long-to-short ratio in perpetual markets slipped below 1. At the same time, lower network activity and soft funding rates limited the price recovery.
Spot U.S. Ethereum ETFs posted $84.4 million in weekly net buying, according to SoSoValue data. The inflow ended eight straight weeks of net selling and marked a change in institutional demand. The funds recorded net outflows only on July 9, when funds lost $52.08 million as ETH fell to about $1,748.
The renewed buying helped Ethereum hold close to $1,800 during the weekend. Institutional demand also matched wider accumulation by corporate buyers. BitMine added 198,370 ETH over the past 30 days and held about $10.3 billion in reserves.
A separate transfer of 20,500 ETH, worth about $36 million, moved from Galaxy Digital to a new wallet, according to Arkham data. The transaction followed a pattern previously linked with large corporate ETH purchases.
Retail traders moved in the opposite direction across the perpetual futures market. Ethereum’s long-to-short ratio fell to 0.946, showing that short positions outnumbered long positions. CoinGlass also showed large traders on OKX and Bybit with an 'extremely bearish' reading.
The two exchanges handled about $4.10 billion and $1.19 billion in perpetual trading volume, respectively. One trader also opened an ETH short position worth $12.43 million before the weekend.
Still, short sellers faced higher liquidation losses. Short liquidations reached $11.49 million, compared with $8.30 million for long traders. The figures showed that bearish positions carried near-term risk despite the rise in selling activity.
Ethereum also gained support from the expansion of tokenized assets and the launch of Robinhood Chain. The layer-2 network uses ETH for gas and attracted about $106 million in bridge deposits. Robinhood also offers tokenized stocks to users in 120 countries, adding activity to the Ethereum-compatible market.
Ethereum held a 47% share of the real-world asset tokenization market, according to RWA.xyz. Leon Waidmann said Ethereum’s total value locked reached $260 billion, above Ether’s market value of about $210 billion. He described ETH as 'underpriced,' though network data showed weaker use than earlier in the year.
Ethereum decentralized applications generated $11 million in weekly revenue, down from $20 million during the first quarter. Active addresses also fell to 3.2 million from 5.4 million.
Meanwhile, the annualized funding rate for ETH perpetual futures dropped to 3%, below the 6% level often linked with balanced demand. ETH now faces resistance near $1,800 as ETF buying and tokenization demand compete with retail selling and weaker network activity.
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