Ethereum Breaks Through the $2,600 Mark: What Is Behind the Short Squeeze and What to Check Now

Ethereum has cleared the $2,600 mark. According to CoinGecko data, ETH stood at $2,616 on Friday evening, September 18, 2026, 6.7 percent above the previous day. The daily high was $2,622. This is exactly the area where the price bounced off in mid-September. A substantial part of the rise goes back to what is known as a short squeeze, and that says a good deal about how durable the move is.

What is documented in this article is the price and liquidation data. Where it turns to the further development, that is an assessment by our editorial team, and we label it as such.

Ethereum price above $2,600: the numbers at a glance

The daily range ran from $2,436 to $2,622. Over one week ETH is up only 1.7 percent, over 30 days close to 25 percent. Market capitalization comes to around $319 billion, which keeps Ethereum clearly in second place behind bitcoin. Despite the recovery, around 47 percent still separate the price from its all-time high of $4,946 from August 2025.

Why the $2,600 mark mattered for Ethereum

On September 14 we described how Ethereum failed at the $2,600 mark. A zone like this is called resistance: a price area where many sell orders accumulate, for instance from investors who bought there earlier and now want to exit without a loss. Once a resistance is cleared, it can turn into support, meaning a zone where buyers step in. Whether that works here will only be decided in the coming days.

Ethereum short squeeze: what happened on September 18

According to CoinDesk, short positions on Ethereum worth around $85 million were forcibly closed within 24 hours, and around $470 million across the entire crypto market. A short is a bet on falling prices. Anyone entering one with borrowed money has to post collateral. If the price rises far enough for that collateral to be used up, the exchange closes the position automatically, and to do so it has to buy ETH back on the market.

These forced purchases push the price up further and trigger the next liquidations. That is the squeeze: short sellers are pushed out of the market and, with their forced buying, drive exactly the move they had bet against.

What a short squeeze reveals about the rally

Our assessment: a squeeze explains why the rise came so quickly, though not whether it holds. Once the leveraged shorts are closed out, that buying pressure disappears. The breakout only becomes durable when investors without leverage buy in and the price stays above $2,600, even as the news flow quietens down.

Fed, Bank of Japan and CFTC: what moved the crypto market this week

The week began with bad news. On Tuesday the CLARITY Act, the most important crypto legislative project in the US, failed in the Senate. The US central bank raised its key interest rate by 0.25 percentage points this week, and in the night to Friday the Bank of Japan followed with a step of the same size. Higher interest rates normally make risky assets less attractive.

That the market rose anyway has to do with a counter-movement. On September 17 the US futures regulator CFTC sent two rule proposals for crypto markets to the White House for review. That was read as a signal that regulation is progressing even without a new law. Together with the liquidations, Friday's recovery grew out of it.

Ethereum with leverage: when your position gets liquidated

This week's liquidations hit more than just professionals. Many exchanges offer leverage to retail customers too, and the mechanism is simple. At a leverage of 10, a price move of around 10 percent against you is enough to use up the collateral you posted, and slightly less once fees are deducted. At leverage 5 it is around 20 percent. On this Friday, Ethereum moved by almost 8 percent between its low and its high within a single day.

Anyone holding a leveraged position should therefore know the liquidation price, which every exchange displays in the position overview, and compare it with the daily range of recent weeks. If it sits inside that range, the risk is high that an ordinary swing ends the position. Leveraged products are unsuitable for most retail investors, and this week's numbers show why.

Ethereum against bitcoin: what the ETH/BTC ratio shows

Measured in bitcoin, one ETH costs around 0.0323 BTC according to the CoinGecko data from Friday evening. This ratio shows whether Ethereum is rising under its own steam or merely being carried along in bitcoin's wake. On this Friday ETH gained 6.7 percent, somewhat more than bitcoin at 5.8 percent, but it stayed well behind Solana at 11.5 percent. Ethereum is therefore benefiting from the recovery without leading it.

For investors holding both coins, that is a useful control figure. If the ratio rises over weeks, Ethereum gains weight in the portfolio without you buying anything. Anyone aiming for a fixed allocation should recalculate after a week like this one to see whether the weightings still match their plan.

Ethereum staking: check the yield and the commission after the rise

For long-term holders, staking is the alternative to trading. You deposit ETH to secure the network and receive rewards for it. How much of that reaches you depends heavily on the provider's commission. Depending on the platform it ranges from a few percent to a quarter of the reward. How to recalculate it is set out in our article on the commission in Ethereum staking.

Selling or holding Ethereum: holding period and exemption limit

Anyone who bought in August at prices around $2,100 is now clearly in profit. Whether a sale costs tax is decided in Germany by the holding period. Ethereum counts as a private sale transaction under section 23 of the Income Tax Act. Within one year the gain is taxable as soon as all private sale gains of the year together exceed the exemption limit of 1,000 euros. After more than a year it is tax-free, even if the coins were staked in the meantime. How to determine the deadline for individual purchases is explained in our guide to Ethereum profits and the holding period.

Ethereum wallet: revoke token approvals after active days

On days with strong price moves, activity on decentralized exchanges rises, and with it the number of approvals users grant to smart contracts. A token approval of this kind allows a contract to move tokens out of your wallet, often without an upper limit and without an expiry date. If the contract is later attacked, the approved tokens are at risk. Anyone who traded this week should check their open approvals and revoke the ones no longer needed. How that works is set out in the article on revoking token approvals.

Ethereum price: which levels count now

On the downside, the area around $2,600 is the first test. If it holds, that argues for a genuine breakout. If ETH falls back below it, the move was probably owed above all to the liquidations. The daily low at around $2,436 marks the next zone. On the upside, many analyses name the $3,000 mark as the next larger target; we summarized the scenarios for it in the Ethereum forecast for the $3,000 mark.

Ethereum price and the short squeeze: what you take away

1. Buy without leverage and in stages. After a squeeze the price is often overstretched in the short term. Spread the entry across several purchases at an exchange from the exchange comparison.
2. Recalculate the commission when staking. The differences between providers are larger than many assume. You can compare terms in the staking comparison.
3. Check the holding period before a sale. Anyone who built up ETH through several purchases needs a clean record. A crypto tax tool shows which coins are already tax-free.

(As of September 18, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)