Ethereum price analysis shows ETH trading near $2,690 as of Thursday morning, down a modest -1.8% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data, a small retrace after a bullish stretch earlier in the week when ETH climbed roughly +10% as it attempted to breach $2,800.
Open interest, the total dollar value of unsettled derivatives contracts, has barely moved in ETH terms since a short squeeze in late August pushed the token above $2,000. That squeeze knocked roughly 700,000 ETH off open interest before a partial recovery. Since then, contracts have hovered near 13 million ETH.
Meanwhile, ETH’s dollar price has climbed 70% since its late-June low, while open interest in dollar terms grew just 60% to $34.8 billion. Leveraged traders, in other words, aren’t chasing this rally. Ethereum also logged $119M in liquidations over the past 24 hours, with $95.8M of that coming from longs getting flushed, per Coinglass.
That gap between price action and derivatives participation sets up an unusually two-sided technical picture: bulls have room to run, but they haven’t yet shown up in force.
Ethereum Price Analysis: Can ETH Reclaim $2,800 This Week?
I hope you didn’t sleep on $ETH.
TradFi is coming onchain.
Ethereum will be this cycle’s biggest sleeper. pic.twitter.com/wexOuEoW4l
— Merlijn The Trader (@MerlijnTrader) September 23, 2026
ETH’s immediate battle is the $2,720 resistance zone, a Fibonacci level where price was recently rejected, according to CoinMarketCap’s technical read. Beyond that sits the tougher $2,800–$2,830 band, which capped ETH’s last rebound attempt.
On the daily chart, ETH still holds a constructive bias; price sits comfortably above its key Exponential Moving Averages, a trend-following indicator that smooths price data to flag momentum shifts.
The scenarios split cleanly:
Bull case: ETH reclaims $2,800, and Bitcoin holds above $90,000, unlocking a push toward the $2,950–$3,200 range analysts have floated for coming weeks.
Base case: Continued chop between $2,540 and $2,800 while derivatives markets stay cautious.
Bear case: A break below the $2,542–$2,550 support band, near the 50-week moving average, opens the door to $2,450, with $2,438 as the level bulls need to defend on a weekly close.
Network activity hasn’t confirmed the bullish case either; active addresses and transaction counts have stayed flat for three months, though Layer 2 scaling could be absorbing some of that load.
Worth watching heading into the Glamsterdam upgrade, tentatively slated for testnet activity in late September or October.
Have a Gut Feeling? It Pays on PolymarketLiquidChain Targets Early Mover Upside as Ethereum Tests Key Levels
No chain gets left outside the ritual. 👁️⟁https://t.co/vqvBcdSQYC pic.twitter.com/Wk2ZENMvRr
— LiquidChain (@getliquidchain) September 22, 2026
ETH’s setup rewards patience more than conviction right now; real upside exists, but it’s gated behind resistance levels that have already rejected two attempts this month.
For traders eyeing bigger asymmetric moves, that math points toward earlier-stage plays rather than an asset already carrying a $325Bn-plus market cap.
LiquidChain ($LIQUID) is pitching itself as a Layer 3 infrastructure project that fuses Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana liquidity into one execution environment, letting developers deploy an application once and reach all three ecosystems rather than fragmenting liquidity across chains.
The presale token currently sits at $0.014958, with $972,646.93 raised so far. Core features include a Unified Liquidity Layer, Single-Step Execution, and Verifiable Settlement.
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