Ethereum back to $3K in May? Latest rebound says ETH price ‘still has more gas’

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.

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.