Key points:
Ether price rose 3% to $2,550 on May 18, triggering $22 million in short ETH liquidations.
A bull flag on the chart suggests a $3,700 target, with analysts predicting Bitcoin’s price to go as high as $5,000 in May.
Ether’s (ETH) price was up on May 18, rising more than 2.5% over the last 24 hours to trade at $2,536. This recovery reinforces the optimism among traders that ETH price could hit $3,000 in May, citing strong technicals.
Ether wipes out $7.5 million shorts in an hour
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and Bitsamp shows that ETH rose by more than 4.5% to an intraday high of $2,551 on May 18 from a low of $2,440 the previous day.
Accompanying Ether’s losses today are significant liquidations across the crypto market. According to data from CoinGlass, more than $158 million leveraged crypto positions have been liquidated over the last 24 hours, with $95 million representing long liquidations.
Short Ether liquidations amounted to $22.25 million, with the $7.5 million being wiped out in the last hour alone.
This means that short traders were caught off guard by Ether’s return to $2,500.
Additional CoinGlass data showed several bands of seller interest above the spot price, with ask orders worth over $384 million building up all the way up to $3,000. This suggested that the ongoing recovery might be capped at this level.
Is Ether’s recovery back?
Market analysts believe Ether’s recent drop was a technical correction to retest key support levels before continuing its uptrend toward $3,000 and beyond.
Titan of Crypto said that the weekly Stochastic RSI’s value at 79 suggests that ETH “still has more gas in the tank” to move higher.
#Ethereum might still have more gas in the tank ⛽️
The weekly Stochastic RSI suggests there’s still room before reaching extreme overbought territory, possibly a few more weeks to go. #ETH pic.twitter.com/atCm93napO
— Titan of Crypto (@Washigorira) May 17, 2025
Ether’s downside may be capped at $2,400, according to pseudonymous analyst Chimp of the North.
The analyst shared a chart suggesting that the altcoin could continue its retracement to retest $2,400 support before launching another rally toward the $3,000-$3,300 range.
Fellow analyst Crypto Patel projected a deeper retracement for Ether, saying that ETH price could potentially drop $1,800 before launching a move higher.
“This area is a high-probability zone for bullish re-entry if price shows support,” the analyst wrote as part of a May 17 post of X, adding:
“If demand holds here, the next leg up toward $4,000–$5,000 could follow.”
As Cointelegraph reported, ETH could hit new all-time highs around $5,000, fueled by AI adoption, spot ETF inflows, and the latest improvements through the Pectra upgrade.
Related: Price predictions 5/16: BTC, ETH, XRP, BNB, SOL, DOGE, ADA, SUI, LINK, AVAX
Ether price bull flag is still in play
From a technical perspective, ETH price is still trading above a bull flag pattern in the four-hour timeframe, a bullish setup that forms after the price consolidates inside a down-sloping range following a sharp price rise.
The bull flag was confirmed on May 13 when the price broke above the upper trendline at $2,550. Ether is now retesting the upper boundary of the flag, currently at $2,470, which is acting as immediate support.
A daily candlestick close above this level could see the asset resume its uptrend toward the technical target of the bull flag at $3,720, up 50% from the current price.
Conversely, the RSI has dropped from 60 to 42 over the last 24 hours, suggesting that the ongoing correction may continue if profit-taking intensifies.
A daily candlestick close below the support level at $2,470 will increase the chances of a price drop to $2,400 and then to the flag’s lower boundary at $2,300.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
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