Ether dropped below the $3,100 level on Sunday as selling pressure intensified across digital assets. The cryptocurrency was recently trading around $3,066 at 9:36 p.m. UTC, down 3.4% over the last 24 hours, after briefly breaking under $3,100 on Bitstamp at about 4 p.m. UTC. It was the first time ETH had dipped beneath that zone since Nov. 4, according to TradingView data.
Timothy Peterson, an investment manager and digital-asset researcher at Cane Island Alternative Advisors, said spot ether ETFs have seen net redemptions in four of the last five weeks. Those withdrawals represent roughly 7% of the cost-basis capital invested in the products. Bitcoin ETFs, meanwhile, lost about 4% of their original capital over the same period — a smaller pullback that Peterson says highlights investors’ current preference for BTC over what they perceive as a riskier ether.
Cost-basis capital refers to the initial money that investors put into an ETF, not the value changes that occur afterward. Because it captures the depth of long-term commitment, rising redemptions as a share of that base are typically interpreted as waning confidence among established holders rather than noise from short-term trading. Analysts view the metric as a more stable sentiment indicator than routine inflow and outflow figures, which can shift sharply with market volatility.
With ETH now trading below a key psychological level, traders are watching whether ETF outflows stabilize or accelerate. The direction of those flows — alongside ether’s price reaction in the days ahead — will help determine whether the sentiment gap between ether and bitcoin that Peterson described continues to widen.
