It has been an extremely volatile week for the cryptocurrency market so far, with Bitcoin and Ether losing key support regions. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is struggling with declining funding rates, resulting in its recent slump. If the current market conditions persist, ETH could record further losses in the near term. Ether struggles with declining funding rates ETH has lost roughly 4% of its value in the last 24 hours and temporarily dropped below $4,000. At press time, ETH is trading at $4.019 per coin and could record further losses in the near term if the bearish trend continues. The bearish performance comes as the Ethereum funding rates turned negative on Wednesday. This is the second time this week that ETH’s funding rates flipped negative, following the large leverage flush on Monday. Ether’s funding rates dipped to -0.0021 over the past 24 hours, which is even deeper than the figure recorded on Monday. Negative funding rates usually happen when a contract trades below the spot price of the underlying asset. This implies a dominant bearish sentiment, with short position holders surpassing long holders in the market. Ether has been experiencing a steady decline in funding rates over the past few days, suggesting that bearish positions are increasing among futures traders. This is a clear divergence from the bullish scenario recorded last month. Usually, negative funding rates either indicate a potential market bottom or a period of lagging prices. The bearish sentiment saw over $100 million worth of Ethereum long positions liquidated from the market in the last 24 hours. Watcher.Guru @WatcherGuru · Follow JUST IN: $100,000,000 worth of $ETH longs liquidated in the past 60 minutes. 10:38 am · 25 Sept 2025 419 Reply Copy link Read 133 replies The bearish sentiment is also seen in US spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Data obtained from SoSoValue revealed that spot Ether ETFs recorded two consecutive days of net outflows totalling $216.7 million. The outflow suggests that institutional investors are reducing their exposure to Ether due to the current market conditions. Ether could retest $3,500 support if the bearish trend persists The ETH/USD 4-hour chart is bearish as Ether has lost 12% of its value over the last 24 hours. The coin dropped below the $4k psychological level a few hours ago, losing 3.7% of its value in the past seven days. ETH has bounced back above $4k after briefly trading at $3,964 a few hours ago. A decline below the $4k could see Ether retest the 100-day SMA around $3,700. Failure to defend this price region could see the top altcoin drop to the $3,533 support level for the first time since August 6. The RSI of 29 shows that Ether is currently in the oversold region. The MACD lines are also within the bearish territory, indicating that the bears are firmly in control of the market. However, if ETH stays above $4k, it could reclaim the $4,500 resistance level in the near term. The all-time high established on August 24 remains a challenging target for Ether at the moment. The post Ether dips below $4,000 amid market volatility: check forecast appeared first on Invezz
