Pro traders turn into bears after Ethereum price dropped to $3,200

cointelegraph.com:

After a 42% rally over a three-week period, Ether (ETH) peaked at $3,580 on April 3 and since then, a 12% correction to $3,140 has taken place.

Tech giants launching their own smart contract platforms and regulatory uncertainty might have impacted investors’ sentiment and derivatives metrics also show worsening conditions that confirm professional traders' shift toward a bearish sentiment.

On April 6, the Financial Times reported that Meta is reportedly planning to introduce virtual currency and lending services. This move is aimed at exploring alternative sources of revenue for Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger.

United States Senator Pat Toomey, the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, also drafted a bill proposing a regulatory framework for stablecoins. The legislation requires issuers to back up their stablecoin reserves with assets "that are cash and cash equivalents or level 1 high-quality liquid assets denominated in U.S. dollars."

Despite Ether’s price correction to $3,200, the network’s value locked in smart contracts increased 13% in 30 days to $85.6 billion. Thus, it is worth exploring whether the mood of derivatives traders was impacted by the recent price rejection.

To understand whether the market has flipped bearish, traders must look at the Ether futures contracts' premium, also known as the "basis." Unlike a perpetual contract, these fixed-calendar futures do not have a funding rate, so their price will differ vastly from regular spot exchanges.

A trader can gauge the market bullishness level by measuring the expense gap between futures and the regular spot market.

Futures should trade at a 5% to 12% annualized premium in healthy markets. Yet, as displayed above, Ether's annualized premium