Ether Falls Below $2,600 as Crypto Liquidations Intensify

Ether (ETH) briefly fell below $2,600 early Wednesday as a broader crypto-market selloff drove heavy futures liquidations and pushed the token to a 24-hour low of $2,596.36.

Binance listed Ether at $2,619.56 at 1:57 a.m. ET (05:57 UTC), down 2.99% over 24 hours. Ether futures liquidations totaled approximately $176.16 million over the previous 24 hours.

The move came as leveraged crypto positions were closed across the market. Liquidations occur when exchanges forcibly close positions whose losses have exhausted the collateral backing them, often adding short-term pressure during sharp price swings.

Ethereum’s Glamsterdam upgrade also reached a Sepolia testnet milestone on Oct. 6 at 9:53:36 a.m. ET (13:53:36 UTC). The upgrade combines changes to Ethereum’s execution and consensus layers, but a mainnet activation date has not been decided.