Ethereum saw record yearly speculative trading activity in 2025, according to the latest market data. Below is the amount traded in the ETH derivatives market over the past year.
Ethereum futures trading reaches new annual record
In a December 26 post on social media platform
Darkfost highlighted that derivatives trading volume continues to dominate the overall cryptocurrency market this year. However, Ethereum recorded increased activity in the derivatives market in 2025, setting a new record in terms of futures trading for the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
As expected, Binance remained the dominant platform in terms of derivatives trading volume, and the numbers put the situation into perspective. According to data highlighted by Darkfost, over $6.74 trillion in ETH futures volume was traded on Binance last year. This is almost double the figure set for 2024, which was already a historic record.
Source: @Darkfost_Coc on X
However, this trend is not limited to Binance, and similar phenomena have been observed on other major exchanges. In detail, OKX hit a new record of $4.28 trillion, Bybit hit $2.15 trillion, and Bitget hit $1.95 trillion in ETH futures trading volume.
Darkfost concluded:
So all major exchanges converge on the same conclusion. Ethereum was one of the world's most traded assets in derivatives markets in 2025, highlighting how strong speculative appetite is.
What is the impact of derivatives market power on prices?
Darkfost further forecast the scale of futures dominance in the market over the past year. On-chain analysts noted that ETH was trading at $5 in futures for every $1 in spot trading. This is an annual record for the derivatives market.
Source: @Darkfost_Coc on X
As you can see in the chart above, the annual spot-to-futures ratio is around 0.2, reflecting a market tilt heavily toward leverage. According to Darkfost, this trend explains the extreme speculation witnessed in the Ethereum market throughout 2025.
Darkfost noted that markets driven primarily by derivatives tend to be more volatile and difficult to predict. “Movements tend to be amplified, chaotic and heavily dependent on liquidations, which could ultimately push ETH to new all-time highs by just a few dollars,” the analyst added.
As of this writing, the price of ETH is around $2,932, down more than 1% in the last 24 hours. After a mixed performance this year, the altcoin is currently down more than 40% from its all-time highs.
The price of ETH on the daily timeframe | Source: ETHUSDT chart on TradingView
Featured image from iStock, chart from TradingView
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