Ethereum Short Bets Hit 51-Month High on Bitfinex Even as Price Holds Near $2,670

Ethereum has had a good few months. It bottomed near $1,506 in June, and as of this week it trades around $2,670, up roughly 86% from that low, according to data cited by Crypto Briefing and by market-analysis outlets KuCoin and EdgeX Exchange. Along the way it touched $2,806 earlier in September, marking that same roughly 86% gain from the June low, with ETH now up about 10% over the past seven days as it pulls back from that high.

A lot of traders are betting that run is over.

Margin data on the exchange Bitfinex shows ETH short positions climbing to roughly 73,056 ETH as of September 24, the highest level in 51 months, according to Crypto Briefing. That's a jump of more than 53,800 ETH in a single week, a roughly 280% increase, per the same TradingView-sourced figures cited independently by KuCoin and EdgeX Exchange. At current prices, that's close to $195 million in short exposure sitting on one exchange.

ETH gained about 10% in the seven days leading up to the peak of that short buildup, according to Crypto Briefing. Normally shorts pile up when a price is falling, not rising. Here, the bearish bets are accumulating precisely as the asset is proving resilient.

A Short Squeeze Already Happened Once This Month

This isn't the first time short sellers got run over in September. On September 21, Ethereum jumped 6% to touch $2,719, breaking through a technical resistance level near $2,672 that had held for months, according to TradingView. The move was triggered by Bitcoin pushing above $85,000 and set off one of the more violent liquidation events of the year: more than $700 million in crypto positions wiped out in 24 hours, including roughly $313 million liquidated in a single hour, of which 96% were short bets, per CoinGlass data cited by TradingView.

That squeeze had a warm-up act three days earlier. When ETH first cleared $2,600 around September 18, about $85 million in ETH shorts were liquidated as part of a broader $470 million liquidation event, TradingView reported. U.S. spot ETH exchange-traded funds also recorded $143.8 million in net inflows around that date, adding buying pressure that doesn't show up in futures data.

The broader market moved with it. The Jerusalem Post reported Bitcoin trading around $85,500 that Monday, up about 5% on the day and roughly 10% on the week, briefly crossing $87,000 to hit its highest level since January. Ethereum itself traded around $2,734 that morning, up about 2.7% on the day and roughly 9.4% for the week, per the Jerusalem Post. XRP rose about 6.4% to $1.51, Solana climbed nearly 15% for the week to around $116.70, and Dogecoin was up about 21% weekly. Total crypto market capitalization reached about $2.9 trillion, the Jerusalem Post reported, with roughly $1.33 billion in leveraged positions liquidated in 24 hours, about $783 million of it in shorts.

The Jerusalem Post also tied the rally to traditional markets: the Nasdaq hit a record with a 2.26% jump that Monday, the 10-year Treasury yield dropped below 5%, and oil prices eased on hopes of reduced Middle East tensions. That combination happened even though, per the Jerusalem Post, the Federal Reserve had raised interest rates the prior week, typically considered negative for Bitcoin.

Michael Saylor's Strategy resumed buying Bitcoin after a pause of several weeks, purchasing 950 coins for $75.7 million and pushing its total holdings to 846,000 BTC, the Jerusalem Post reported. Bitfinex itself, quoted by the Jerusalem Post, said the rally needs real spot-market buying, not just short covering, to become a durable trend. Bitcoin remains more than 30% below its October 2025 all-time high of about $126,000, the Jerusalem Post noted, tempering talk from some analysts that a new bull market has begun.

Hedge or Bet Against the Rally

Margin data alone cannot distinguish a hedge from a directional bet. A fund sitting on large ETH holdings might short on Bitfinex purely as insurance against a pullback, locking in paper gains without selling. Alternatively, large traders may simply believe ETH is overextended after its rally and be positioning for a correction. Both strategies look identical in the numbers, and nothing in the current data set resolves which one is driving the 73,056 ETH figure.

What happens next depends on a specific price level. The 100-week EMA sits at $2,558, just under the broader $2,550 support zone identified in the KuCoin and EdgeX Exchange chart analysis. Ethereum needs to hold that zone to preserve its recovery structure. Losing it opens the door to $2,180, then $1,965 and $1,713. Holding it and clearing the $2,761 to $2,800 resistance cluster opens the path toward $3,447. Whether the 73,056 ETH in Bitfinex shorts becomes forced buying that drives the next leg up, or profitable bets that mark the top, will show up in whichever direction that $2,550 line breaks first.