Ethereum retreats from $2,668 as momentum cools ahead of Q4 upgrade
Ethereum (ETH)
Editor:
Eugene Serbin
inews24.eu reports that Ethereum has pulled back to approximately $2,600 after briefly climbing to $2,668, yet remains 47% below its October 2025 peak near $4,946. The asset is trading near 0.032 against Bitcoin, significantly lower than its 2021 high, while roughly 35% of its supply is now staked and spot ETFs hold $16.7 billion. Despite midweek outflows exceeding $400 million, $144 million returned on September 18, indicating demand exists but has not triggered a stampede.
Fundstrat’s Tom Lee suggests that if Bitcoin reaches $150,000 and the ETH/BTC ratio recovers to 0.04, Ethereum could near $6,000 by December. BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes has identified ETH as his largest position, projecting a speculative $10,000 target by end-2026 based on liquidity expansion. Standard Chartered’s Geoff Kendrick offers a more conservative $4,000 target, while Citi has previously set a 12-month target as low as $2,240.
Technical resistance sits between $2,655 and $2,668, with a sustained break potentially opening the path to $2,800-$3,000. A failure to hold these levels could bring $2,400 back into play. The Sepolia upgrade is scheduled for October 6, with the mainnet version penciled in for Q4 to increase throughput and blob capacity. Whalio notes that Ethereum must prove it can hold its current breakout before larger price targets become viable.
How the market reacted
Whalio's own Binance spot order flow for ETH, measured when this story was written up on 20 September 2026. Not the outlet's figures.
Whalio’s Binance spot data shows Ethereum trading at $2,632.69, with a 1-hour buy ratio of 52.1% indicating short-term buying pressure. This contrasts with the 4-hour buy ratio of 47.4% and the 24-hour ratio of 49.9%, suggesting that immediate buying momentum is fading over longer timeframes. The 1-hour volume delta is positive at +$1,065,620, while the 4-hour and 24-hour deltas are negative at -$5,647,507 and -$1,122,637 respectively. The 24-hour Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD) stands at -$48,703,709, confirming that sellers have dominated the day's volume. Net buying occurred for only 8 of the 24 hours, with total spot volume reaching $478,019,418 across 1,726,786 trades. This data suggests that while there are pockets of buying, the overall flow remains net negative for the day.
The latest daily buy ratio of 46.8% sits at the 16th percentile of the last 322 days, against a median of 49.5% - weaker buying than most days.
Was that an ordinary day?
The same Binance spot measurements for ETH, averaged over the days leading up to the story.
Over the preceding week, the average buy ratio was 49.1%, with the latest day showing a slight increase of 0.8 points. However, volume was only 0.60x the average, indicating lower participation than usual. Net buying occurred on just 2 of the 7 days, and the 8-day volume delta was -$43,267,961. Price increased by 4.2% over the 8-day period despite the negative volume delta. This represents an ordinary day for the coin, characterized by lower-than-average volume and mixed buying signals compared to the weekly baseline.