Ether Funding Rate Turns Negative as Markets Fear Bears Are Driving ETH

Perpetual-contract funding rates are periodic payments between long and short position holders. A negative rate means shorts pay longs, typically signaling increased hedging and bearish positioning. Ether is also under pressure from cooling mainnet activity, outflows from U.S. spot ETFs and weak demand for leveraged long positions, making the signal important to whether ETH can hold key price levels. Staking demand, however, may still provide medium- to long-term support.

As of June 13, 2026, Laevitas data showed that the funding rate had been negative since June 5. CoinGlass data showed ETH futures open interest had fallen 30% in one month to a 13-month low, while U.S. spot ETFs recorded net outflows of $323 million over two weeks. DefiLlama reported that Ethereum TVL had dropped 33% over two months to $37.5 billion, but BitMine added 337,078 ETH over 30 days.