Ether.fi (ETHFI) Daily Market Analysis 18 February 2026

Ether.fi (ETHFI) Recent Developments

Strategic Pivot to Neobank Services

Ether.fi is pivoting from infrastructure to user-facing payment and banking products, marking a significant strategic shift for the liquid staking protocol. The project is providing cash cards and on-chain banking experiences that emphasize self-custody and DeFi composability.

MEXC Partnership and Crypto Card Launch

Ether.fi, in partnership with MEXC, launched a new crypto card usable at over 150 million Visa merchants, offering 4% cashback and exclusive perks. This development represents a major expansion into real-world spending utility for the protocol's users.

Institutional Interest Signals

Arthur Hayes received 132,730 ETHFI from Anchorage Digital, with the transaction confirmed on-chain on 18 January 2026. This signals sustained high-profile interest in ether.fi's liquid staking model.

Foundation Buyback Activity

The ether.fi Foundation spent $700K to purchase 987,709.78 ETHFI tokens, with tokens locked to prevent extra selling pressure. This demonstrates the foundation's commitment to supporting token value through protocol revenue allocation.

Current Market Performance

In the past 24 hours, Ether.fi recorded $395,365 in fees and $115,360 in project revenue. The token currently trades at approximately $0.48 USD with a market capitalization around $335-355 million.

Technical and Sentiment Analysis

The consensus on ETHFI is mixed, with short-term technical pressure clashing against strong fundamental conviction, with traders focused on the immediate battle at $0.675 support level, while long-term holders are encouraged by the protocol's strategic buybacks and its prime position in the Ethereum restaking ecosystem.

ETHFI Price Analysis: 24-Hour Movement

Current Price and Performance

ETHFI is trading at $0.4804 USD with a 24-hour trading volume of $24.7 million. The token has experienced a modest decline, with ETHFI up 2.54% in the last 24 hours according to CoinMarketCap data, though other sources report slight negative movement of approximately -0.81% based on real-time aggregated pricing.

Market Capitalization and Liquidity

The current CoinMarketCap ranking is #104, with a live market cap of $335.97 million USD. Trading volume of ETHFI is $31.27 million in the last 24 hours, representing a -5.80% decrease from one day ago and signalling a recent fall in market activity.

Broader Market Context

The modest price pressure on ETHFI reflects broader cryptocurrency market dynamics. The cryptocurrency market is currently navigating a period of significant turbulence, with February 8, 2026, marking a continuation of a broad downturn that has sent ripples across the digital asset landscape, with investor sentiment dominated by 'Extreme Fear,' as major cryptocurrencies experience substantial price corrections.

Weekly Performance

Despite today's slight decline, ETHFI demonstrates resilience on a longer timeframe. With a price increase of 9.70% in the last 7 days, Ether.fi is outperforming the global cryptocurrency market which is down -0.30%, while underperforming when compared to similar Ethereum Ecosystem cryptocurrencies which are up 12.70%.

Technical Metrics

The fully diluted valuation (FDV) of Ether.fi is $475.46 million. The token maintains moderate volatility characteristics relative to broader market conditions, with trading activity concentrated across major exchanges including OKX, Gate, and MEXC.

Market Sentiment Analysis: ETHFI (Ether.fi)

Overall Sentiment Assessment

Current technical sentiment for Ether.fi's price is bullish, though this contrasts with mixed market dynamics. The consensus on ETHFI is mixed, with short-term technical pressure clashing against strong fundamental conviction.

Social Media and Community Sentiment

Social media data reveals predominantly positive sentiment across platforms. In the last 24 hours, across all social media platforms, ether.fi has an average sentiment score of 4.3 out of 5, with people mostly bullish about ether.fi on Twitter. More specifically, 60.09% of tweets showed bullish sentiment compared to 7.51% bearish sentiment, with 39.91% neutral.

On Twitter, 29.13% of tweets showed bullish sentiment compared to 12.61% bearish sentiment, with 58.26% neutral. Community engagement remains active, with 212 unique individuals talking about ether.fi ranked #1,128 in most mentions and activity from collected posts.

Trader Positioning and Market Indicators

Current overall sentiment in the ETHFI market is bullish at 75% bullish versus 25% bearish, with ETHFI_USDT exhibiting bullish alignment on the 4-hour chart. The MA and EMA indicator group is generating a unanimous bullish signal, with 7 buy signals, 0 neutral signals, and 0 sell signals.

Price action shows mixed short-term dynamics. This represents a -1.10% price decline in the last 24 hours and a 9.70% price increase in the past 7 days. The trading volume of Ether.fi is $31,268,002.35 in the last 24 hours, representing a -5.80% decrease from one day ago and signalling a recent fall in market activity.

Recent Sentiment Shifts and Catalysts

Recent developments have supported bullish sentiment. Projects like ether.fi are pivoting from infrastructure to user-facing payment and banking products, with MEXC exchange and ether.fi launching a co-branded crypto-powered Visa card that integrates with Apple Pay and Google Pay, offering up to 4% cashback.

The ether.fi Foundation spent $700K to purchase 987,709.78 ETHFI tokens, with tokens locked to prevent extra selling pressure, demonstrating protocol-level support for the token price.

However, technical resistance remains a concern. Key support to defend is 0.675 – losing it would trigger accelerated selling toward lower support zones.

Fundamental Outlook

ETHFI benefits from Ethereum's staking growth, EigenLayer's leading restaking protocol, strong tech team, and increasing adoption in DeFi, with its ecosystem expanding and creating new use cases and value accrual opportunities. However, ETHFI faces bearish pressure due to high initial hype, unclear long-term utility, strong competition in the LST sector, and potential token unlocks increasing sell pressure.

ETHFI Technical Analysis

Current Price & Market Data

Price: $0.4776 USD Market Cap: $354.8M 24h Volume: $24.3M 24h Change: -0.81% 7d Change: +9.29% Risk Score: 55.5/100

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Key Support Levels

$0.4223 – Swing low functioning as a rejected order block with volume spike, confirmed with EMA50 around 0.42$, serving as an invalidation level

$0.3811 – Highest-confluence liquidity pool (score: 79/100) on 1D and 3D timeframes, tested as a strong buyer block after the sharp October 2025 drop, aligning with Fibonacci 0.618 retracement on the 1W timeframe

$0.30-$0.35 Range – Secondary support zone with liquidity gap below $0.3811$

$0.1040 – Major supply-demand imbalance level representing extended downside target

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Key Resistance Levels

$0.4574 – Key resistance level

$0.4574 – Hourly close above this level triggers a bullish order block

$0.4574-$0.5160 Range – Sell-side liquidity pool targetable after breakout

$0.7450 – Upper target (score 13); requires clearing all multi-timeframe resistances

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Technical Indicators

RSI (14-Day) RSI 30.72 indicates oversold conditions with recovery potential

Moving Averages Price continues to stay below EMA20 (0.53$), strengthening short-term bearish signals

MACD Supertrend indicator is in bearish direction showing resistance at 0.59$

Bollinger Bands Volume profile shows imbalance around 0.43$; clearing the imbalance will clarify direction

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Chart Pattern Analysis

Downtrend Structure In downtrend, RSI oversold offers bounce potential, BTC correlation critical

Order Block Configuration Bullish OB strong at 0.3811$, Bearish OB at 0.5160$

Big players (whales) are hunting liquidity at the 0.4223$-0.3811$ supports; stop-loss clusters are concentrated here

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Volume Analysis

Volume remains limited at 18.48M$, with price squeezed in the 0.43$-0.46$ range

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Timeframe Breakdown

Hourly ETHFI is currently in a soft intraday downtrend; staying under the 50- and 200-period EMA keeps the short-term picture tilted lower

Daily ETHFI is currently in a strong downtrend; price is below both the 50- and 200-period EMA, which is typical for a broader downtrend

Weekly ETHFI is in no clear multi-week trend yet, price is mostly ranging; the setup is rated as neutral

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Market Correlation & Risk Factors

BTC is in a downtrend with a 1.62% drop at 69,038$; high correlation with ETHFI (%0.85)

If BTC breaks 68,231$ support, it pushes ETHFI to 0.3811$. Conversely, if BTC breaks 71,912$ resistance, an altcoin rally triggers, opening the path to 0.5160$ for ETHFI

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Short-Term Outlook

If it holds above 0.4223$, prepare for 0.4574$ test; on breakout, target 0.5160$

On downside, main test 0.3811$, below to 0.1040$

With oversold RSI, long bias short-term, but trend bearish – wait for confluence

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Medium-Term Outlook

R/R ratio: Upside to 0.7450$ at 1:3, downside around 1:2.5

11 strong levels were identified across multiple timeframes (1D/3D/1W): 2 supports/2 resistances on 1D, 1 support/2 resistances on 3D, and 2 supports/4 resistances confluence on 1W. This confluence increases the strength of the levels