Ether extended Friday's rally on Saturday, trading above $2,616 for the first time since late August after spot Ether ETFs took in $143.7 million on Friday. The next resistance sits at $2,757, and a daily close above the old ceiling would confirm the breakout.
Ether traded at $2,646 on Bitstamp at 17:56 UTC on Saturday, up 1.3% on the day and about 8% above Thursday's close, after touching $2,668 earlier in the session. The move pushes ETH above $2,616, a level that had capped every rally attempt since late August.
Friday's daily candle closed just $5 short of that ceiling, so Saturday's close decides whether the breakout holds.
Why Ethereum Is Rising
Ether rose with the rest of the market on Friday, when Bitcoin reclaimed $80,000. But three developments now point to demand specific to ETH.
US spot Ether ETFs took in $143.7 million on Friday, led by $114.3 million into BlackRock's ETHA, according to Farside Investors data. That inflow ended three straight days of outflows that removed $405.4 million from the funds between Tuesday and Thursday.
At the same time, the average Ethereum transaction fee fell to $0.095, down from a 2026 peak of $0.72 on April 21, according to on-chain analytics firm Santiment. Santiment linked the cheaper fees to the Fusaka upgrade, higher blob capacity and Layer-2 networks taking over activity from the main chain, though the firm cautioned that lower fees alone do not prove stronger demand.
The macro backdrop also helped. The Federal Reserve raised rates on Wednesday, and the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act earlier in the week. Neither event triggered a lasting selloff.
Next Resistance at $2,757
Ether spent almost four weeks between $2,393 and $2,616 after the late August breakout, and several September wicks poked above the top of that range before failing. The daily chart now shows the price trading above it after a 6% Friday candle.
The trend supports the move: the 50-day EMA sits at $2,309, above the 200-day EMA at $2,218, and ETH trades about 13% above the faster average. The first resistance is $2,757, about 4% above the current price and the level where the late January selloff accelerated. Above it, the next resistance zone runs from $3,371 to $3,454, with a Fibonacci extension placing the 100% level at $3,499, about 32% higher.
A daily close back below $2,616 would turn Saturday's move into another failed breakout, putting the range floor at $2,393 back in play as support. Only a close below $2,393 would break the structure built since August.
What Banks Expect for Ether
Standard Chartered set an end-of-2026 target of $4,000 for Ether, cut from $7,500 in June, according to Yahoo Finance. Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank's global head of digital assets research, said "transaction counts and total value locked sit near record highs in ETH terms."
Ether already trades about 18% above the target Citi cut in July, set at $2,240. Standard Chartered's year-end target is roughly 51% above the current price and falls between the two Fibonacci resistance levels ahead.
Source: Finance Magnates
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