Here Is the Main Reason Why Ethereum Price Remains Choppy Amid High Spot ETF Demand

Ethereum (ETH) price has consolidated between $2.7k and $2.4k since the first week of May 2025. The large-cap altcoin, with a fully diluted valuation of about $304 billion, has failed to capitalize on rising demand from institutional investors.

As Coinpedia has pointed out, the U.S. spot Ether ETFs have recorded three consecutive months of cash inflow, led by BlackRock’s ETHA. In the past two months, the U.S. spot Ether ETFs recorded a net cash inflow of more than $1.4 billion.

As a result, the overall supply of Ether on centralized exchanges has gradually declined in the past two months to about 14.77 million coins at the time of this writing.

Why Has Ethereum Price Not Mooned?

Ethereum price has continued to consolidate in the last two months despite the palpable accumulation by institutional investors. In the past 7 days, ETH price has dropped over 8 percent to trade at about $2,529 on Wednesday, during the late North American session.

The main reason why Ether price has performed poorly in the recent past amid heightened demand from institutional investors is the overheated futures short position, especially on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). Notably, hedge funds and other institutional players have been deploying heavy short bets through the CME futures, currently worth over $1 billion.

As a result, the short bets have been outweighing the overall demand from spot Ether ETFs, leading to a significantly suppressed ETH price.