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 inves...