Ethereum Struggles at $2,550 as $115M in Futures Liquidations Loom

Ethereum bounced hard. The token climbed nearly 6% to around $2,524 on September 4, clawing back from a low of $2,370 hit just days earlier. Bitcoin crossed $81,000 in the same stretch, and the broader crypto market caught a bid — but Ethereum’s ceiling is proving stubborn.

That ceiling sits at $2,550. It’s not a new problem. That level has turned back previous rallies more than once, and it’s doing it again. On September 4, Ethereum touched an intraday high of roughly $2,547 before sliding back. Close — but not through. The resistance zone between $2,535 and $2,550 is packed with leveraged positions per CoinGlass data, meaning any clean break above it could trigger a short squeeze that adds serious upward momentum fast. A failure to hold, though, puts $2,500 in play immediately, then the Bollinger Band midpoint near $2,445.

Fed Comments and Weak Jobs Data Fuel the Rally

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said recently that rate hikes could pause if inflation keeps cooling. Markets ran with it. Treasury yields dropped, the US dollar weakened, and rate-sensitive assets — Ethereum included — got a lift. The Fed’s next meeting falls on September 15-16, and expectations for another hike faded pretty quickly after Waller’s remarks landed.

Weak jobs numbers added fuel. The ADP National Employment Report showed private employers added only 38,000 jobs in August. That’s well short of the 47,000 estimate. Not a catastrophic miss, but enough to shift sentiment and give crypto markets room to breathe. Rate-sensitive assets tend to move when employment data disappoints, and Ethereum’s recovery on September 4 fits that pattern.

The macro picture isn’t settled, though. US employment and inflation reports due in the coming days could flip sentiment again, especially if the numbers come in hot and revive talk of Fed tightening. Ethereum’s near-term path probably depends as much on those prints as on anything happening inside the crypto market itself.

Large ETH Transfers and Futures Pressure

One significant holder moved 167,855 ETH to exchanges — a transfer that’s hard to ignore. Separately, a wallet shifted 70,739 ETH, worth roughly $174 million, to several exchanges over a two-day span. That same wallet still held 97,115 ETH, valued at nearly $237 million at the time. Not all of it was necessarily sold. But the flow toward exchanges raises the obvious question about added supply hitting the market at exactly the wrong moment for bulls trying to push through $2,550.

Big transfers don’t always mean big sells. But they can. And when they happen right as price is testing a key resistance zone, traders notice.

Read also: CFTC Seeks Dismissal of CME’s Crypto Futures Lawsuit, Citing No Legal Standing

On the futures side, things are stretched. Ethereum saw approximately $115 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours. Open interest sits around $34.23 billion. That’s a lot of leverage riding on a market that’s caught between two liquidity pools. CoinGlass data puts a significant downside concentration of leveraged positions around $2,485–$2,490. A drop through that level could accelerate selling fast, as traders cut losses and forced liquidations compound the move.

What the Charts Are Showing

On the 4-hour chart, Ethereum is trading near its upper Bollinger Band at $2,544.17. The relative strength index has climbed to 66.87 — not overbought yet, but close. That’s the kind of reading that makes momentum traders nervous about chasing. A breakout above $2,550 would open the door to $2,600 and then $2,700, with the psychological $3,000 level further out. Analysts think a weekly close above $2,550 could push Ethereum toward $3,000 fairly quickly. Unclear exactly how quickly, but the view is that the level matters a lot.

The daily chart looks more constructive. Ethereum is still trading above the Supertrend line at $2,223.45, which is a signal of continued uptrend. The Chaikin Money Flow on the daily chart stays positive, meaning buying pressure is still outpacing selling pressure — at least for now. But a drop below $2,445 would weaken the short-term recovery picture, and a slide under $2,345 risks retesting the recent low near $2,370.

Spot Ethereum ETFs added a data point on the demand side. US spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds recorded net inflows of $141.39 million on September 3. That’s real money moving in, and it’s hard to square with a purely bearish read on where institutional appetite sits right now.

Still, the immediate test is $2,490. That support level basically determines the short-term direction. The CoinGlass liquidation heatmap puts Ethereum squarely between two pools of liquidity — above at $2,535–$2,550, below at $2,485–$2,490. Whichever way it breaks, the move probably won’t be slow.

See also: Bitcoin Faces 0.8% Drop as U.S.-Iran Strikes Trigger $91M in Long Liquidations

Open interest around $34.23 billion with $115 million in recent liquidations.