Assessing Bitcoin, Ethereum derivative side with changing market dynamics

ambcrypto.com:

The crypto market’s performance on a YTD basis has been different from the bearish performance last year. We have seen strong demand recovery, especially from the spot market.

A recent analysis revealed how Bitcoin and ETH derivatives demand faired during the same period.

Realistic or not, here’s ETH market cap in BTC’s terms

Research conducted by Deribit Insights highlighted some interesting observations about derivatives demand for BTC and ETH.

The analysis looks into multiple facets of the derivatives market. It notes that while bullish demand has returned since the start of 2023, the derivatives demand has been a bit restrained. Nevertheless, both BTC and ETH achieved substantial demand in particular segments.

BTC’s funding rate registered some activity in January and even less in the first half of February. However, the latest rally triggered a large spike in Bitcoin funding rates to higher levels than spot demand.

Source: CryptoQuant

The most recent spike which peaked on 16 February marks the highest level of BTC funding rate seen so far on a YTD basis.

Things are a bit different on ETH’s side. It quickly surged from zero at the start of the year to 0.03 by mid-January. It fell to zero once again by mid-February followed by another spike in the last two days.

Source: CryptoQuant

Despite another spike, ETH’s funding rate did not manage to push to previous highs, thus indicating lower demand.

Bitcoin and ETH’s open interest metrics have been up and down for the last four weeks. More noteworthy is that BTC outperformed ETH in this regard at least for the second half of January. However, ETH’s open interest has been higher in February so far.

Source: Glassnode

In addition, both the BTC and ETH options open interest metrics are