Ethereum Price Calm But is Short Squeeze About to Push ETH to $2k?

cryptonews.com:

As the Ethereum Merge nears, there has been increased interest in the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Ether has been outperforming Bitcoin over the past week as news of the Merge triggers bulls that have been liquidating short positions. The Ethereum futures market has been increasingly active as investors hedge against the risk of the Merge.

There has been a difference in sentiment between the top two largest cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum. The difference comes from the Merge news, a process expected to happen within the week.

The Ethereum development team has been working on the Merge since the network’s inception, and this work is finally becoming a reality. The Merge is a process that will transition Ethereum from a proof-of-work consensus to a proof-of-stake consensus.

As the Ethereum community anticipates the Merge, the ETH funding rates have been notably negative for more than a month because investors hedge their risk exposure to Ether by choosing short perpetual futures.

Investors are turning towards the futures market to adjust their risk exposure as the Merge nears. A report by Kaiko revealed that the perpetual futures for Ether now trade at more than seven times the volumes of the spot market, which is also a four times gain since November last year.

The short-term trading activities of the traders have left the market prime for a potential short squeeze, which has happened in previous times when the funding has been on the sharp negative side.

If the Ethereum Merge is successful, it is expected that the short futures positions will be closed, and the funding will return to the positive side. This could give Ether the support needed for accelerating the price after the Merge.

Ether has been on