Efe Nail Saltık 
Ether futures open interest on centralized exchanges has reached a new record of $14 billion, indicating increased trading activity around the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.
The amount of open interest accumulated in ether futures reached a record high of $14 billion on Tuesday, according to CoinGlass. This is an all-time high in US dollars.
Daily open interest in Ether futures has increased by more than 40%, from around $10 billion at the beginning of 2024.
Open interest (OI) measures the total value of all open or “unfilled” futures contracts on exchanges and indicates market activity and trader sentiment around a particular asset.
This increase coincided with the price of ether rising to $3650, an increase of 18% in the last 24 hours.
Optimism for spot ether exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval was the main catalyst for this increase. Notably, ETF analysts noted that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is increasingly likely to approve spot ether ETFs. Bloomberg ETF analysts James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas state that the chance of approval of this product has increased from 25% to 75%.
According to reports, the SEC asked issuers to update and refile their Form 19b-4 documents. These documents require agency approval before spot ether ETFs can become active. The first round of spot ether ETFs deadlines are approaching this week: VanEck’s deadline is May 23 and Ark Invest/21Shares’ deadline is May 24.
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