Ethereum slips below $2,600 as long liquidations and ETF outflows mount

What happened

Ethereum traded below $2,600 on October 7, extending a decline that pushed the token out of the range it had held for weeks. Blockonomi reported ETH near $2,617 after it fell under $2,600. CoinCentral put the token near $2,555, a 5.67% decline for the day. CryptoSlate recorded a 5.9% drop over 24 hours to $2,570. Coinpedia said sellers regained control after a recovery toward $2,700 failed, and that ETH was testing $2,600 after falling nearly 4% in the latest session.

The drop set off forced selling. CoinGlass data cited by CryptoSlate showed $233.36 million of ETH positions liquidated over 24 hours, with longs accounting for $221.87 million, or about 95% of the total. CryptoSlate added that $226.22 million of that was wiped out in 12 hours, including $216.11 million of long exposure. CoinCentral reported $201 million in Ethereum long liquidations on October 7, the highest single-day figure since June 5. Watcher.Guru, cited by CoinCentral and Blockonomi, said approximately $400 million in long cryptocurrency positions were forcibly closed inside 20 minutes as ETH broke the threshold. The largest single order was a $26.64 million ETHUSDC position on Binance.

Spot Ether ETFs added to the pressure. CryptoSlate reported about $202 million of net outflows on Oct. 6, the largest single-day withdrawal since Sept. 16. That extended the current streak to six sessions and brought total withdrawals to roughly $408 million. Coinpedia put the same session at $201.9 million and said the run had removed about $407.8 million since September 29. CoinCentral, citing SoSoValue, reported $201 million leaving on October 6, with weekly outflows of $252 million, the highest since June 2026. Blockonomi said fund participants had withdrawn a cumulative $207 million over five days, the most extended sequence since June, and posted Lookonchain data showing one-day Ethereum ETF flows of -21,432 ETH (-$58.29M) and seven-day flows of -79,193 ETH (-$215.37M).

The remaining liquidation map still looks heavy. CryptoSlate reported about $1.35 billion of ETH long exposure sitting at liquidation levels below the prevailing price, against about $999.78 million of shorts vulnerable above it. The nearest pressure point was roughly $112.83 million of Hyperliquid longs positioned to liquidate around $2,511. With ETH at $2,605.65, the distance to that level had narrowed to about 3.6%, compared with a 7.4% cushion a day earlier.

Why it matters

Positioning shows traders have not abandoned longs. CoinGlass ratios cited by CryptoSlate put Binance ETH/USDT accounts at 3.32 long-to-short and OKX at 2.13. Binance's largest traders were also skewed toward longs, at 2.34 by accounts and 1.62 by positions. Funding, however, turned negative: Ethereum's open-interest-weighted funding rate stood at -0.0041% and its volume-weighted rate at -0.0034%. CoinCentral reported the weighted funding rate at -0.0043%, the lowest reading since early September.

Macro conditions are working against risk assets. Coinpedia noted Brent crude above $100, recently near $102, a U.S. 10-year Treasury yield above 5.3% and a Dollar Index around 102. CoinCentral linked part of the fall to reports of attacks on oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, which pushed Brent crude toward $101.50 a barrel and the 10-year yield to around 5.31%. A second Coinpedia report said the 10-year yield above 5.3% was the highest so far in 2026, with 30-year yields at multi-decade highs, and put the Dollar Index at around 102.4. Bitcoin fell from about $86,600 to a low near $83,060, and liquidations across the wider market totaled $665 million.

On-chain activity has held up better than price. Coinpedia reported daily active addresses nearing 520,000 despite the decline. The same outlet said Ethereum faces added pressure from institutional ETF redemptions and from market debate over technical and cryptographic vulnerabilities. Blockonomi noted the MVRV ratio rose from 1.4% to 3.5% during this timeframe.

What the data shows

The reports put several figures on the move. ETH traded at $2,617, $2,605.65, $2,570 and $2,555 across different snapshots, with declines reported at 5.9%, 5.67% and nearly 4%. CryptoSlate's liquidation figures were $233.36 million over 24 hours, $221.87 million of it longs. Blockonomi cited $15.3 million of Ethereum liquidations with $10.5 million of long closures.

Ether ETF flows for October 6 were reported at about $202 million, $201.9 million and $201 million. The streak details were a cumulative $408 million or $407.8 million for the run, $207 million over five days, and $252 million for the week. Ethereum's weighted funding rate was -0.0043%, the open-interest-weighted rate -0.0041% and the volume-weighted rate -0.0034%.

Technical levels include a 20-day moving average of $2,684, support at the 20-day average around $2,656 with floors at $2,631, $2,558 and $2,500, resistance at $2,781, $3,075 and $3,260, and an RSI of 44.55, down from 61 just days earlier.

Background

The move came as Ethereum's Glamsterdam upgrade was deployed on the Sepolia testnet, a milestone before the mainnet release. Blockonomi said the release merges two protocol improvements, Amsterdam and Gloas, and encompasses 18 primary Ethereum Improvement Proposals plus 7 supplementary ones covering block processing and data management. Among the changes is an expansion of the gas limit ceiling from 60 million to 200 million units. At an OKX NOW event, co-founder Vitalik Buterin projected that decentralized applications would increasingly integrate artificial intelligence over the coming two years.

Blockonomi said ETH was still trading above its 20-day, 50-day and 100-day moving averages at the time of its report. CoinCentral's analysts were more cautious. Ted Pillows said Ethereum was testing support at its 100-week exponential moving average and warned that a weekly close below it could lead to a deeper correction, the report noted that a close below this EMA in February 2025 sent ETH from $2,800 down to $1,500, and a similar break in January 2026 took it from $3,200 down to $1,700. Daan Crypto said ETH had broken below its recent two-to-three week trading range. Merlijn The Trader wrote that holding the $2,500 to $2,560 zone keeps the path toward $3,000 open.

What is still unclear

• Whether the first wave of liquidations removed enough leverage to steady the market is not known. CryptoSlate said a continued decline toward $2,500 would test whether another layer of long positions remains vulnerable below.
• The liquidation map is not a list of certain closes, the $1.35 billion of long exposure sits across many price levels rather than one threshold.
• Analysts differ on the levels that matter. CoinCentral pointed to $2,400 and then $2,100 below, while Merlijn The Trader said holding $2,500 to $2,560 keeps the path toward $3,000 open.

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