Analysis: Ethereum short positions increased 40% in a week and 500% since November

Odaily News The Kobeissi Letter published an article on X saying that a new chart from ZeroHedge shows that Ethereum is facing record shorting by hedge funds, with the number of CME futures contracts hitting a new high of 11,341. Ethereum's short positions increased by 40% in a week and 500% since November 2024.
It points out that Ethereum's history shows a clear correlation between large short positions and subsequent price crashes. On February 2, ETH fell sharply, plummeting 37% in 60 hours after President Trump announced his tariff policy. It was almost like the flash crash of the stock market in 2010, but without any headlines. The sell-off caused the cryptocurrency market to evaporate more than $1 trillion in a few hours.
Interestingly, Ethereum’s capital inflows remained high even as short exposure continued to increase in December 2024. In just 3 weeks, ETH attracted more than $2 billion, setting a record of more than $854 million in weekly inflows.
Since the beginning of 2024, Bitcoin has risen about 12 times as much as Ethereum, a gap that has swelled Bitcoin’s market cap to six times that of Ethereum, a dominance not seen since 2020.