Key factors:
Ether worth rose 3% to $2,550 on Could 18, triggering $22 million in brief ETH liquidations.
A bull flag on the chart suggests a $3,700 goal, with analysts predicting Bitcoin’s worth to go as excessive as $5,000 in Could.
Ether’s (ETH) worth was up on Could 18, rising greater than 2.5% over the past 24 hours to commerce at $2,536. This restoration reinforces the optimism amongst merchants that ETH worth may hit $3,000 in Could, citing robust technicals.
Ether wipes out $7.5 million shorts in an hour
Information from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and Bitsamp exhibits that ETH rose by greater than 4.5% to an intraday excessive of $2,551 on Could 18 from a low of $2,440 yesterday.
Accompanying Ether’s losses immediately are important liquidations throughout the crypto market. In accordance with knowledge from CoinGlass, greater than $158 million leveraged crypto positions have been liquidated over the past 24 hours, with $95 million representing lengthy liquidations.
Brief Ether liquidations amounted to $22.25 million, with the $7.5 million being worn out within the final hour alone.
Which means brief merchants had been caught off guard by Ether’s return to $2,500.
Extra CoinGlass knowledge confirmed a number of bands of vendor curiosity above the spot worth, with ask orders value over $384 million build up all the best way as much as $3,000. This advised that the continued restoration may be capped at this stage.
Is Ether’s restoration again?
Market analysts imagine Ether’s latest drop was a technical correction to retest key help ranges earlier than continuing its uptrend toward $3,000 and past.
Titan of Crypto said that the weekly Stochastic RSI’s worth at 79 means that ETH “nonetheless has extra fuel within the tank” to maneuver increased.
#Ethereum would possibly nonetheless have extra fuel within the tank ⛽️
The weekly Stochastic RSI suggests there’s nonetheless room earlier than reaching excessive overbought territory, probably just a few extra weeks to go. #ETH pic.twitter.com/atCm93napO
— Titan of Crypto (@Washigorira) May 17, 2025
Ether’s draw back could also be capped at $2,400, in accordance with pseudonymous analyst Chimp of the North.
The analyst shared a chart suggesting that the altcoin may proceed its retracement to retest $2,400 help earlier than launching one other rally towards the $3,000-$3,300 vary.
Fellow analyst Crypto Patel projected a deeper retracement for Ether, saying that ETH worth may doubtlessly drop $1,800 earlier than launching a transfer increased.
“This space is a high-probability zone for bullish re-entry if worth exhibits help,” the analyst wrote as a part of a Could 17 publish of X, including:
“If demand holds right here, the following leg up towards $4,000–$5,000 may comply with.”
As Cointelegraph reported, ETH may hit new all-time highs around $5,000, fueled by AI adoption, spot ETF inflows, and the newest enhancements via the Pectra upgrade.
Associated: Price predictions 5/16: BTC, ETH, XRP, BNB, SOL, DOGE, ADA, SUI, LINK, AVAX
Ether worth bull flag remains to be in play
From a technical perspective, ETH worth remains to be buying and selling above a bull flag sample within the four-hour timeframe, a bullish setup that varieties after the worth consolidates inside a down-sloping vary following a pointy worth rise.
The bull flag was confirmed on Could 13 when the worth broke above the higher trendline at $2,550. Ether is now retesting the higher boundary of the flag, at the moment at $2,470, which is appearing as speedy help.
A each day candlestick shut above this stage may see the asset resume its uptrend towards the technical goal of the bull flag at $3,720, up 50% from the present worth.
Conversely, the RSI has dropped from 60 to 42 over the past 24 hours, suggesting that the continued correction could proceed if profit-taking intensifies.
A each day candlestick shut under the help stage at $2,470 will enhance the probabilities of a worth drop to $2,400 after which to the flag’s decrease boundary at $2,300.
This text doesn’t include funding recommendation or suggestions. Each funding and buying and selling transfer includes threat, and readers ought to conduct their very own analysis when making a choice.
