Ethereum Struggles Below $2K as Pro Traders Remain Cautious: Should Investors Be Worried?

• ETH is up 6.4%, but still struggling to reclaim $2K as traders remain cautious.
• Futures and options data show weak confidence, with whales hedging against more downside.
• Ethereum’s fundamentals are solid, but retail enthusiasm is fading, partly due to ETF outflows.

Ether’s price ticked up a bit — 6.4% from its March 30 low of $1,768 — not a bad move, but still far from reclaiming that magic $2,000 level everyone’s watching.

Some folks are pointing fingers at the whole memecoin meltdown lately. It’s not just an Ethereum issue, but let’s be honest — it dragged down activity across a big chunk of the DApp ecosystem. Fewer meme trades, less action. Simple as that.

As of now, ETH is still sitting 44% down year-to-date, and looking at how the futures and options markets are behaving… yeah, let’s just say traders aren’t exactly jumping in headfirst.

Futures Say “Eh.” Investors Say “Not Yet.”

One way to tell if big money is feeling bullish? Check the futures premium — the difference between ETH futures prices and spot prices. On April 2, the premium hit 4%, up from 2% just a couple days earlier.

Better? Sure. But still under the 5% “neutral” threshold, which tells us investors aren’t confident enough to start getting aggressive.

And that’s not all.

Options Market Still Leaning Bearish

Wanna know how whales and market makers really feel? Look at ETH’s 25% delta skew — basically, the balance between buying calls (bullish) and puts (bearish). Under normal conditions, it hovers between -6% and +6%.

Right now? It’s sitting at +7%, down from +9% a few days ago, but still showing that big players are more interested in hedging downside than betting on a pump.

Translation: they’re still playing defense.

Yes, DApp Revenue Fell — But ETH’s Still the King of DeFi

Now, it’s tempting to blame all this on Ethereum’s DApp revenue, which dropped a sharp 49% between January and March. That definitely hurts short-term demand.

But zoom out. Ethereum still leads the DeFi space — $49 billion locked, and stablecoin holdings on the network are inching close to a new all-time high at $124.5 billion. Even with the slump in NFTs, metaverse buzz dying down, and memecoins fading, Ethereum’s fundamentals haven’t cracked.

Structured products, synthetic assets, and complex DeFi tools are still building on ETH. So while the shiny stuff might’ve lost some luster, the backbone of the network’s utility? Still strong.

Retail Isn’t Buying the Dip — And ETFs Might Be to Blame

Let’s shift to the retail crowd. Are they buying? Nope. Or at least, not aggressively.

The perpetual funding rate — which usually shows when traders are using leverage to long or short ETH — has been flat since March 31. That means small investors aren’t chasing the price or betting on a crash. They’re just… waiting.

One reason for the chill? Spot ETH ETFs saw $37 million in outflows over the last two weeks. That’s not a massive number, but it’s enough to say enthusiasm has cooled, at least for now.

Trump Family Hype Could Change the Mood — But It Hasn’t Yet

Here’s a twist. There’s been some buzz after news broke that World Liberty Financial (Trump-connected) made a crypto play involving ETH. On top of that, Eric Trump gave Ether a shoutout recently, which turned a few heads.

Could that spark momentum? Maybe.

But for now, sentiment is still mostly neutral-to-bearish, and neither retail nor whales are diving back in with full conviction. Everyone’s just… watching.