Stories are generated from ORTEX data and reviewed by the ORTEX team. How we publish
ETH, the Grayscale Ethereum Staking Mini ETF, has continued the retreat flagged in last week's note, with short interest now at its lowest level in the 30-day dataset and the borrow market effectively wide open.
The short-side collapse over the past two weeks has been sharp. Short interest has dropped to just 0.2% of the float, down from over 3% at the end of September. The week-on-week reading shows a single-day bounce of 26% on October 13, but that follows a 93% weekly decline in shares short, meaning the bounce is noise on top of a very large unwind. The short score has tracked this shift in real time, falling from 51.5 on October 1 to 25.7 as of October 12, the lowest reading in the recent history. At this level, short-side pressure is minimal.
Borrow conditions reinforce that picture. Availability has expanded to over 3,700%, meaning the lending pool holds roughly 37 shares available for every one currently borrowed. That is an extremely loose market. A week ago availability sat around 2,819%, and in late September it had compressed as far as 362% when short interest was at its peak. Cost to borrow has also retreated sharply, now running at 0.17%, down 75% on the week and well below the 0.50% to 1.28% range that characterised September. There is nothing in the lending data to suggest any residual pressure from the bear side.
Options positioning is calm and consistent with that backdrop. The put/call ratio at 0.32 is almost exactly in line with its 20-day average of 0.31, producing a z-score near zero. That means neither puts nor calls are being accumulated at an unusual rate. The 52-week range runs from 0.16 to 0.41, and the current reading is squarely in the middle, reflecting neither defensiveness nor aggressive bullishness. Call-side positioning continues to dominate overall options open interest, consistent with how crypto-linked ETFs tend to be used, primarily as long-side vehicles rather than hedging instruments.
On price, the fund closed at $23.91 on October 13, down 6.8% on the week and 1.4% over the past month. The one-month drawdown is modest. The fund paid a $0.0422 cash dividend with an October 5 payment date, reflecting the staking yield component that distinguishes it from a plain-vanilla Ethereum tracker. That income element matters for the fund's institutional appeal: it turns a passive crypto holding into a yield-generating position, which broadens the potential holder base beyond pure directional traders.
What to watch next is whether the price pullback on the week attracts any renewed short interest rebuilding, or whether short sellers, having largely exited their positions, remain on the sidelines while the fund's yield and crypto sentiment set the tone.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open ETH on ORTEX →ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data and reviewed by the ORTEX team. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
