WINTERMUTE SAYS ETHEREUM IS "NOT THE RIGHT ASSET FOR THIS MACRO"
Ethereum came under renewed pressure this week after major market maker Wintermute said ETH is "not the right asset for this macro," citing rising U.S. Treasury yields, renewed inflation concerns and weaker demand across crypto markets . ETH fell 10.2% during the week and traded near $2,119 on May 19 .
Wintermute said Ethereum has underperformed across spot and derivatives markets, pointing to softer ETH funding, higher relative implied volatility and outflows from Ethereum exchange-traded funds as signs that investor appetite has weakened. The firm described ETH as a "long-duration asset" because much of its market case depends on future network fees, adoption across decentralized applications and stronger Layer 2 activity .
The ETH/BTC pair has remained under pressure, moving toward 0.0275 - keeping Ethereum close to one of its weakest relative levels against Bitcoin in the current cycle. While Bitcoin fell 5.7% over the same period, ETH lost more than 10%, according to the market data cited in Wintermute's report .