Ethereum (ETH) Rejected at $2,697 as Trading Volume Fades

Volume Fade Confirms the $2,697 Ceiling

The Ethereum (ETH) price rejected the $2,697.86 ceiling on Saturday, giving back 2.28% over the 24 hours to 10:47 UTC and sliding back toward the $2,600 range as the wider market corrected alongside Bitcoin. Market data from that snapshot put Ether at $2,681.87; live monitoring shows the quote near $2,683 now, flat since the print, with the 24-hour loss at 2.4%. The damage sits in the tape rather than the quote. Ether ran into stiff selling twice in quick succession, first at the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement near $2,697.86, a level traders watch for pullback reversals, and again at the 200-day exponential moving average around $2,689. Those two readings sit inside a band roughly $10 wide, and together they form one of the sharper support and resistance zones on the chart.

The number this session turns on is volume. Trading activity fell 10.66% across the same 24 hours, which means the attempt on the $2,697 shelf came on thinning participation rather than fresh demand: the bid lacked the order book depth to clear the zone. That is why the technical cap confirmed itself instead of breaking. The pullback was not Ethereum-specific. Bitcoin lost 2.02% over the window, and the aggregate crypto market capitalization shed 1.96%, so the altcoin market simply tracked a market stepping back after a strong macro week. Because Ether carries a high-beta profile relative to BTC, it absorbed a larger share of that flow, and the slide toward $2,600 reflects beta, not a network-specific problem.

$2,659 Support Decides the Next Leg

The trigger sits in macro data rather than on-chain stress. September US nonfarm payrolls added 29,000 jobs, itself below recent trends, which raised expectations the Federal Reserve would pause on rates, and the relief bounce that followed was promptly sold into. Profit-taking and position adjustments then compounded across the risk complex. Ether's 83% correlation with gold makes that channel explicit: when rate expectations move, capital reprices the entire risk complex at once, and the asset backing the network's smart contracts moves with it. The same 10.66% volume decline cuts the other way too, since ceilings tested on falling volume tend to give way once participation returns, which is the bull case for a second attempt at $2,697. Levels matter more than narrative from here. Holding the $2,600 to $2,650 band allows consolidation and a retest of the September high, which spans $2,740 to $2,800; a clean break opens a slide toward $2,500. Two variables will set the direction. The September consumer price index arrives on October 14 and lands directly on the rate-expectations channel that drove this week's flows, and Ethereum's net exchange flows are the second watch item, because sustained outflows would ease sell-side pressure on the spot market.

Derivatives positioning has shifted under the price action. On-chain and futures analytics show Ethereum's open interest kept expanding over the weekend, rising from $18 billion to $18.7 billion, after peaking at $19.9 billion on October 2, the highest level since November 2025. Binance data adds a bearish undercurrent: the cumulative volume delta for sell trades has been negative since August, with a sharp drop on October 2 coinciding with the weekend sell-off. A whale also sold 13,330 Ethereum (ETH) bought in the ICO at $0.31. On Hyperliquid, total open interest stands at $3.3 billion, overtaking Bitcoin's $3.24 billion, with short positions clustered above $2,800 and longs defending the $2,600 range.

(as of 17:35 UTC) COINOTAG's proprietary 42-indicator composite S/R scoring engine rates the $2,805.47 resistance at 81/100, anchored by R3, the 0.000 Fibonacci level, the Donchian upper band and the Keltner upper band. A softer ceiling sits at $2,748.78, strong at 61/100 on R1, the swing high and the ATR upper band, with $3,149.78 next at a moderate 42/100 on the 1.272 Fibonacci extension, followed by $3,328.55 and $3,436.83 at 39/100 and 37/100. Below, $2,664.04 is the strongest floor at 79/100, held up by S2, the Bollinger middle band, the 20-period SMA and the 0.114 Fibonacci level, with $2,369.11 strong at 74/100 and $2,583.11 at 69/100. RSI at 60.11 and a bearish MACD show momentum cooling inside a broader uptrend. Funding sits at -0.0008%, with $11.65 billion in open interest and a long/short account ratio of 1.49, 59.8% long, against a Fear & Greed reading of 70. A daily close above $2,805.47 would open the path toward $3,149.78; losing $2,696.08 shifts focus to $2,664.04, which holds a 79/100 rating. Full level detail is in our Ethereum technical analysis page.