Ethereum as the second-largest cryptocurrency has continued to surprise investors and observers alike. Looking at the asset’s price performance this month it may not look so, but there is a market other than the spot market where Ethereum killed it last month. If this works out, Ethereum might find a new section of audience.

While the month of September was not the best in terms of price action, it did witness a sharp rise in trading volumes still. Overall volumes increased by 13.9% combining both top tier and lower tier exchanges. In fact, spot markets’ volumes even peaked at $161 billion on 7 September marking a 3-month single-day high.

Total volumes – spot market | Source: CryptoCompare

The biggest contribution to this rise came from the 15 largest “Top-Tier” exchanges, where volumes rose by 10.8% in comparison to August.

Similarly, the derivatives market witnessed a rise as well. Since leveraged traders invested further into the market their participation increased not owing to news surrounding Bitcoin. This time the rise was led by Ethereum.

Top-Tier exchanges’ volumes | Source: CryptoCompare

If you look at the derivatives market you’ll notice that the Open Interest (OI) across Bitcoin futures products dropped by 3.7%. In the same time period, Ethereum’s OI rose by 4.7%. The case was the same for perpetual contracts as well which have gone up by 3.7% since August sitting at $4 billion.

Ethereum / Bitcoin Futures OI | Source: CryptoCompare

In fact, CME, the biggest derivatives exchange market in the world, witnessed the ETH’s OI touching the all-time highest levels as it went up by 10.5% last month.

Surprisingly, in the same time period, BTC’s CME OI reduced by 3.1% and ETH’s volumes also could be seen to have risen by 34.51%.

The interesting observation here is that all these gains took place at a time when the market was bleeding. September saw Ethereum’s price falling by 21.69%. But the rise in derivatives shows that investors’ focus is shifting further into leveraged trading. 

Ethereum price action | Source: TradingVieww – AMBCrypto

This is good because it lets investors with lesser money increase their buying power, which can increase their returns even if they long or short.

But it also creates the possibility of a significant market shift should investors liquidate their contracts, which could result in a major price fall.