• Whales and spot traders have been selling ENA collectively, yet the token continues to rise
• Surge linked to ENA has been driven by derivative traders in the market who are pushing its price higher

In the past 24 hours, ENA recorded a major price hike of 17%, with the altcoin continuing its bullish streak from last week. This, despite the fact that in the long-term, the asset is still down by 11.81% or so.

AMBCrypto’s analysis also discovered that this market rally has been supported primarily by derivative traders. Especially as demand from their end increased, while spot traders and whales continued to sell.

Spot and whale traders sell off

There has been a major sell-off of ENA in the past 24 hours, driven by spot traders and large investors. This move seemed to be somewhat unusual though, especially as the market is continuing to rally.

Coinglass’s Exchange Netflows, which measure the inflow and outflow of an asset on exchanges to determine buying or selling activity, indicated that selling is currently dominant. At press time, $2.26 million worth of ENA had been sold across the market.

Similarly, the selling trend seemed to have extended to large investors who held a significant portion of the asset. At the time of writing, these investors had sold 4.18 million ENA worth $1.42 million. 

Concurrently, selling pressure from retail traders and whales implied that the market may be highly bearish and might note a decline.

However, the sustained rise in ENA’s price suggested that these cohorts are likely just taking profits.

Which market cohort is driving ENA higher?

Analysis also revealed that while spot traders and whales have remained bearish, derivative traders have maintained a bullish position. Especially since all key metrics flashed signs of upside.

Open Interest and the long-to-short ratio climbed simultaneously too. This suggested that unsettled derivatives contracts in the market have been dominated by buyers who are currently leading overall trading volume.

Open Interest surged by 12.86% to $373.14 million, while the overall long-to-short ratio hit 1.0194. Binance traders maintained the highest buying volume during this period, as their long-to-short ratio climbed to 2.0377.

Additionally, derivative traders who bet against ENA’s rally suffered significant losses too as their positions were liquidated. In total, $905,890 worth of short positions were removed from the market.

Data showed that from a low of $334.86 million on 20 April, overall volume in the derivatives market climbed to $662.46 million – Nearly double.

This seemed to be a strong indication that buying activity has dominated the market over recent days.

Fundamentals behind ENA’s surge

Strong fundamentals seem to be supporting ENA’s rally too. 

Here, one key driver has been a recent analysis by ENA’s team comparing the performance of its yield-bearing synthetic dollar, sUSDe, against fully funded Bitcoin (BTC), 3-month T-bills, the S&P 500, and Ethereum (ETH). 

According to the same, sUSDe outperformed all these asset classes in terms of yield. This outperformance may have boosted investor confidence in ENA, encouraging more traders to open long positions.