Ethereum (ETH) Shorts Liquidated for $250 Million in an Hour After CPI Reversal

Ethereum (ETH) Breaks $2,660

Ethereum (ETH) staged one of its sharpest intraday reversals of the year on Friday, climbing above $2,660 for the first time since late January shortly after the latest US CPI print landed. The Ethereum network's native token was initially dragged lower alongside the rest of the market when the inflation figures matched expectations almost exactly, with Bitcoin slipping from above $77,000 to a weekly low near $76,000. That dip proved to be the turning point. Within roughly an hour of the release, aggregated liquidation data shows more than $250 million in short positions were wiped out, and over half of that total was concentrated in ETH. Across the full 24-hour window, liquidations reached approximately $660 million, catching close to 100,000 traders off guard as Bitcoin rebounded toward $79,000 and put Ethereum price action back at the center of the market.

Zeberg: “ETH Taking Off”

Macro strategist Henrik Zeberg added fuel to the move, reiterating his bullish Ethereum (ETH) stance in a post published on X on September 11, 2026. Sharing an ETH chart, Zeberg's Ethereum post declared the asset “taking off” and argued the rally is unfolding precisely as his macro roadmap anticipated, with his own portfolio positioned for the scenario. He had flagged the rotation in August, contending that a late-cycle shift of capital into risk assets could see Ethereum outperform both Bitcoin and the broad equity market. Technical projections circulating alongside his call point to roughly $3,050 as an upside objective, following a 37% climb in ten days that printed a bull-flag formation — with a loss of the $2,350–$2,360 zone flagged as the level that would undermine the setup.

@HenrikZeberg · X post

Zeberg's Ethereum post.

View on X

EIP-8288 Targets Quantum Safety

Underneath the price action, the protocol itself is moving. EIP-8288, a proposal authored by Vitalik Buterin introducing a recursive STARK aggregation mempool framework, merged into the official EIP repository on September 9, 2026. The design aims to make Ethereum (ETH) more resistant to quantum attacks while cutting the cost of processing cryptographic proofs: rather than posting large signatures and privacy proofs directly onchain, transactions would declare their intent, with proofs aggregated recursively inside smart contracts — trimming the effective gas fee burden per verification. The proposal targets the I-star fork, described as the next step after Frames, though it remains in draft form with no confirmed deployment schedule — a detail easily overlooked in a headline-driven market. The quantum-safe push is circulating widely, including via a summary of Vitalik's proposal, while developers separately eye the Oct. 6 Glamsterdam activation on Sepolia.

@ETH_Daily · X post

A summary of Vitalik's proposal.

View on X

$2,440 Was the Coiled Base

The surge lands against a cautious weekly backdrop. Earlier in the session, ETH had been nursing a 3% decline on the week after momentum faded near $2,500, with $2,400 identified as the support bulls needed to defend to keep the structure intact. Buy volume had been thinning and signs of buyer exhaustion were building, raising the risk of a deeper correction if the level gave way. The $2,438–$2,440 band, reinforced by the 50-week moving average and a Fibonacci cluster, served as the base for the move, with a close above $2,600 required to open the path toward $2,800. Friday's push through $2,660 cleared that trigger — and it comes as exchange supply falls to 15.5M ETH, a backdrop COINOTAG flagged ahead of the breakout test. A break below $2,310 would still shift focus toward deeper support near $2,220. Readers tracking the market in real time can follow live spot and futures prices on MEXC.

$2,666 Resistance in Focus

Adding to the bullish chorus, Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee — who chairs the board of Bitmine Immersion Technologies, the world's largest corporate holder of ETH — described the move as the start of a massive "face-ripper rally" against short sellers. Bitmine had accumulated 5.9 million ETH by September 2026, roughly 4.9% of the global supply, with most staked, as it buys weekly under Lee's "alchemy of 5%" strategy. Fundstrat argued that extremely defensive positioning ahead of the inflation print — where annual CPI matched forecasts at 3.4% but Core CPI edged past expectations at 0.3% month over month — triggered a rush of sidelined cash back into risk assets, amplifying forced liquidations. Analysts caution, however, that with ETH's 8.3% intraday jump outpacing Bitcoin's sub-4% gain, leverage unwinding rather than fresh spot demand deserves part of the credit.

Additional exchange-level detail from Bitstamp's tape offers a granular view of the squeeze: ETH briefly touched an intraday high of $2,663 around 10 a.m. ET before fading, with the rally arriving in two waves — a first push that stalled at $2,510, then a second that added more than $150 (6.5%) in under an hour. By 3 p.m. the token had pulled back to $2,533, still up nearly 3% on the day with market capitalization just below $310 billion, narrowing year-to-date losses to 15%. On that venue, $215 million in short positions were force-closed against $91 million in longs, and ETH accounted for roughly 40% of the $758 million total liquidated over 24 hours. Traders view $2,500 as the key support to hold, with September targets clustered between $2,800 and $2,950.

(as of 09:40 UTC) COINOTAG's proprietary 42-indicator composite S/R scoring engine rates the $2,537.33 resistance at 49/100, driven by the confluence of the Ichimoku Tenkan, the Pivot Point, a MACD Cross and the Keltner Upper — a ceiling spot is pressing directly, with ETH at $2,534.18, up 2.82% over 24 hours. Next resistance at $2,612.96 scores 73/100 (Fibo 0.000, Donchian Upper, ATR Upper, R1), while first support at $2,471.45 scores 76/100 (Fibo 0.214, S1, BB Lower, ATR Lower), with $2,306.51 at 61/100 and $2,245.90 at 66/100. RSI at 64.38 is elevated but not overbought, and the MACD signal remains bearish despite the uptrend. Derivatives lean mildly bullish: funding at 0.0015% is positive, open interest stands at $10.35 billion, and the long/short ratio sits at 1.47 — a clear long tilt — with Fear & Greed at 63 (Greed). A reclaim of $2,537 opens $2,613 (73/100) and then $2,982 (44/100); losing $2,471 undermines the bullish read.