Ethereum Sees Record-High Activity In 2025 Derivatives Market — Here’s How Much Was Traded
According to the most recent market information, Ethereum has seen an annual file of speculative buying and selling exercise in 2025. Below is how a lot was traded within the ETH derivatives market up to now yr.
Ethereum Futures Trading Hits New Yearly Record
In a December 26 publish on social media platform X, pseudonymous analyst Darkfost revealed that Ethereum stood out in a single regard regardless of the combined efficiency of altcoins in 2025.
Darkfost highlighted that derivatives buying and selling volumes continued to dominate your entire crypto market this yr. However, Ethereum recorded elevated exercise within the by-product markets in 2025, setting a brand new file when it comes to futures buying and selling for the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.
As anticipated, Binance remained the dominant platform when it comes to derivatives buying and selling quantity, with its determine additional placing issues into perspective. According to information highlighted by Darkfost, over $6.74 trillion in ETH futures quantity was traded on Binance up to now yr, virtually double that of 2024, which was already a historic file.
However, this pattern was not restricted to Binance, as other major exchanges additionally noticed an identical phenomenon. Breaking issues down, OKX noticed a brand new file of $4.28 trillion, whereas Bybit registered $2.15 trillion, and Bitget recorded $1.95T in ETH futures quantity.
Darkfost concluded:
All main exchanges subsequently converge towards the identical conclusion. Ethereum was one of the vital traded property on the planet on by-product markets in 2025, highlighting simply how sturdy speculative urge for food has been.
What Derivatives Market Dominance Means For Price?
Going additional, Darkfost put into perspective the magnitude of futures dominance available in the market over the previous yr. The on-chain analyst revealed that ETH noticed $5 in futures buying and selling for each greenback in spot buying and selling, an annual file within the derivatives market.
As noticed within the chart above, a spot-to-futures ratio round 0.2 over the yr displays a market closely tilted towards leverage. According to Darkfost, this pattern explains the intense hypothesis witnessed within the Ethereum market all through 2025.
Darkfost famous {that a} market primarily pushed by derivatives tends to be extra unstable and fewer predictable. “Movements are typically amplified, disorderly, and extremely depending on liquidations, finally permitting ETH to register solely a marginal new all-time high by only a handful of {dollars},” the analyst added.
As of this writing, the value of ETH stands at round $2,932, reflecting an over 1% decline up to now 24 hours. After a combined efficiency this yr, the altcoin is currently down from its all-time high by greater than 40%.