Ether leverage surges to new high of 0.57, much higher than Bitcoin leverage of 0.269

On Jan. 3, ethereum's crude leverage ratio climbed to a new high of 0.57 on Wednesday, up sharply from 0.37 at the start of the last quarter of 2024, according to tracking data. The ratio is calculated by dividing the cumulative open interest in standard and perpetual futures contracts listed globally by the total amount of ETH in the wallet associated with the futures trading platform. The rise in the leverage ratio is indicative of increasing use of leverage by traders and a surge in risk-taking and market speculation.

This level of leverage is much higher than that of Bitcoin, which at press time stood at 0.269, the highest level since early 2023, but still well below the all-time high of 0.36 set in October 2022.CryptoQuant predicts that ethereum will experience price volatility twice as high as that of Bitcoin in the near future.