Ethereum Holds $2,400 as BitMine Keeps Buying Amid $87M Liquidations

October 20, 2026 MM Crypto Team

Ethereum is clinging to the $2,400 level as one of its biggest corporate buyers keeps accumulating — and futures traders keep getting flushed out on both sides. The session behind Ethereum $87 million liquidations tells a story of tension rather than direction: a determined corporate bid underneath the market, institutional ETF money leaving through the front door, and derivatives traders discovering that betting against a price that refuses to fall can be just as costly as betting on it. The technical chart, meanwhile, draws a precise map of the levels that will decide which force wins next.

BitMine Buying Meets ETF Selling

BitMine’s continued ETH purchases are providing a steady bid, even as US spot ETH ETFs recorded roughly $320 million in net outflows last week — a third consecutive week of negative flows, according to SoSoValue data.

Ethereum futures logged $87 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, driven by more than $71 million in short liquidations, suggesting bearish bets were squeezed as the price held firm.

Two Opposite Institutional Signals

The defining feature of this market is the collision between two kinds of institutional behaviour. On one side stands BitMine, accumulating Ethereum as a deliberate corporate treasury strategy — buying that is strategic rather than tactical, executed to build a long-term position and largely indifferent to whether this week’s chart looks friendly. On the other side stand the US spot ETH ETFs, through which a broad base of investors redeemed roughly $320 million last week, completing a third consecutive week of negative flows in SoSoValue’s data. ETF flows are also institutional, but they aggregate thousands of individual allocation decisions, many of them short-horizon and performance-sensitive.

Neither signal cancels the other out; together they explain the price. Ethereum holding the $2,400 area despite sustained ETF selling implies that someone is absorbing the supply those redemptions create, and BitMine’s purchases are the most visible candidate for that absorber. The BitMine steady ETH bid functions like a floor of last resort in the current structure — not a guarantee that price cannot fall, but a reason declines keep meeting demand. The fragility in the arrangement is equally clear: a market leaning on one famous buyer is a market exposed to the day that buyer pauses.

Short Liquidations and the Mechanics of a Squeeze

The composition of the liquidation total is the detail that changes its meaning. Of the $87 million liquidated in Ethereum futures over 24 hours, more than $71 million came from short positions — traders betting on lower prices. Liquidated longs would have signalled a market falling out from under optimistic buyers. Liquidated shorts signal the opposite: price refused to fall, ground upward or held firm long enough to breach the collateral limits of bearish bets, and forced those traders to buy back their positions. Forced buying, in turn, adds demand — the self-reinforcing loop known as a short squeeze.

Context keeps the episode in proportion. This was a squeeze in miniature, not a historic capitulation: Ethereum essentially held its level rather than rocketing higher, which means the forced buying was absorbed by willing sellers around $2,400. But the lesson for positioning is real. When a well-publicised buyer keeps absorbing supply, crowded short trades become dangerous even if the broader trend looks weak, because the path of price — not just its destination — determines who gets liquidated along the way. The Ethereum $87 million liquidations total, dominated by shorts, is the receipt for that danger.

Technical Picture

On the daily chart, ETH is trading below its 50-day and 20-day exponential moving averages near $2,483 and $2,504, keeping the near-term tone cautious. The 100-day EMA around $2,351, together with horizontal support near $2,355, offers a first technical floor.

The Relative Strength Index in the high-30s and the Stochastic in the low-20s suggest rallies will likely face selling pressure while those shorter EMAs cap the upside. A sustained break above $2,504 would open the way toward $2,548, then $2,637 and $2,782. If support breaks, the next cushions sit at $2,205, $1,972 and $1,828.

Reading the Moving Averages as a Map

Exponential moving averages weight recent prices more heavily than older ones, which is why traders use them as dynamic guides to trend rather than fixed lines in the sand. Ethereum trading below both its 20-day EMA near $2,504 and its 50-day near $2,483 means that, on the horizons swing traders care about, the recent trend still points down or, at best, sideways — every rally is, for now, a rally into a declining average, where sellers have repeatedly appeared. The 100-day EMA around $2,351 plays a different role: it is the deeper line whose survival keeps the current episode classifiable as a correction within a broader structure rather than the start of something worse. Its near-perfect overlap with horizontal support near $2,355 — a level where price itself previously turned — is what technical analysts call confluence, and confluent levels tend to attract both defenders and attackers in size.

The Ethereum $2,504 breakout level is therefore the chart’s trigger point. A sustained break above it — not a brief spike, but closes that hold — would flip the short EMAs from ceiling to potential support and open the sequence of targets listed in the original analysis: $2,548 first, then $2,637 and $2,782. Each of those levels represents a prior area of price congestion where supply can be expected. Conversely, a decisive loss of the $2,351 to $2,355 floor exposes the progressively thinner cushions at $2,205, $1,972, and $1,828, levels that matter precisely because there is less historical trading between them to slow a fall.

What the Oscillators Add

The Relative Strength Index in the high-30s places momentum on the weak side of neutral without reaching the oversold extremes that often precede sharp bounces. The Stochastic in the low-20s tells a similar story of subdued momentum near, but not at, washed-out levels. Read together with the liquidation data, the oscillators sketch a market that is tired rather than panicked: sellers have pressed, a corporate buyer has absorbed, shorts have been squeezed, and yet momentum gauges still warn that rallies will face selling pressure while the shorter EMAs cap the upside. Oversold bounces are trades; trend reversals require reclaiming levels — and $2,504 is the level that counts.

The Tug-of-War, Summarised

The bull case. BitMine keeps buying, ETF outflows are being absorbed near $2,400, shorts are crowded enough to fuel squeezes, and the $2,351–$2,355 floor is holding — ingredients for a base.
The bear case. Three straight weeks of ETF outflows show allocator demand is absent, price sits below its 20-day and 50-day EMAs, and momentum indicators remain soft — ingredients for another leg down if the floor cracks.
The deciding evidence. A sustained break above $2,504 strengthens the bull script toward $2,548, $2,637, and $2,782; a break below $2,355 hands control to the bear script toward $2,205 and below.

Markets in this configuration reward patience over prediction. The levels are unusually well defined, the opposing flows are unusually visible, and the squeeze data shows what happens to traders who commit heavily before the map resolves. Ethereum at $2,400 is not a verdict — it is an argument still in progress, with the next EMA test likely to supply the punctuation.

Why Holding a Level Matters More Than Touching It

Traders distinguish carefully between a price level being touched and a level holding, and Ethereum’s behaviour around $2,400 is a textbook example of why. A touch is a moment; a hold is a process, repeated across hours and sessions, in which sellers test the level and buyers keep absorbing what is offered. Each successful defence consumes some of the supply that was waiting to be sold, and each failed attempt to break lower discourages the next seller while emboldening shorts to cover — as the $71 million in short liquidations suggests some already have. Defence also has a psychological compounding effect: a level that has visibly held several times becomes a reference point that new buyers trust with orders, which can make the floor progressively more real. None of this converts a hold into permanence. Floors fail when the absorbing buyer steps away, when a broader market shock overwhelms local demand, or when sellers simply return with more size than the defence can take. That is why the analysis pairs the encouraging hold at $2,400 with the concrete floor at $2,351 to $2,355 below it: the first level is where the argument is happening, the second is where its outcome will be confirmed or denied. Watching which of the two gives way first — the EMA ceiling at $2,504 above or the confluent floor beneath — is the cleanest way to follow this market without guessing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why were most liquidations from short positions?

More than $71 million of the $87 million total came from shorts, indicating bearish traders were squeezed as the price held firm near $2,400 instead of falling — their forced buy-backs added demand.

How can ETH hold up while its ETFs lose money?

US spot ETH ETFs saw roughly $320 million in net outflows last week, a third straight negative week, but BitMine’s continued purchases provide a steady ETH bid that helps absorb the supply those redemptions create.

What is the key level to watch on the upside?

The Ethereum $2,504 breakout level — the 20-day EMA area. A sustained break above it would open the way toward $2,548, then $2,637 and $2,782, according to the technical analysis.

Where is support if $2,400 fails?

The first floor is the 100-day EMA around $2,351 with horizontal support near $2,355. Below that, the next cushions sit at $2,205, $1,972, and $1,828.

Source: FXStreet

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