Ethereum is trading near the $2,000 level as traders watch for signs of a sustained recovery. At the time of writing, ETH sits at $1,972, up 1% in 24 hours but still down 38.54% over the past month.
The $2,000 mark has become a key level that traders are watching closely for short-term direction.
One data point drawing attention is Ethereum’s Estimated Leverage Ratio on Binance. According to CryptoQuant, the ratio dropped to around 0.557, its lowest reading since December.
That is down from a recent peak of roughly 0.675, when traders were taking on more aggressive positions.
A falling leverage ratio means traders are closing leveraged positions or moving toward more cautious strategies. This kind of deleveraging has historically come before periods of price stabilization.
Lower leverage tends to reduce the risk of sudden liquidation events, which can cause sharp price swings. Analysts say this may be creating a more stable base for ETH price discovery.
Tom Lee’s Nasdaq-listed firm BitMine added 20,000 ETH, worth approximately $39.8 million, purchased from BitGo. This follows an announcement that the firm had already acquired 45,759 ETH the previous week.
It seems that Tom Lee(@fundstrat)'s #Bitmine bought another 15,000 $ETH($29.57M) from FalconX 8 hours ago.
Today alone, it has bought 35,000 $ETH($69.37M).https://t.co/rIsJ9LUHMNhttps://t.co/chV48gqXIm pic.twitter.com/SrWOqHhllL
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) February 19, 2026
BitMine says it has now reached 72% of its goal to hold 5% of Ethereum’s total supply. The firm is one of the more aggressive institutional buyers of ETH at current prices.
Analyst Ted Pillows noted that liquidity clusters remain balanced, with both longs and shorts positioned aggressively on either side of the current price. That structure means a move in either direction could trigger a wave of liquidations.
$ETH liquidity clusters are pretty balanced right now.
Both longs and shorts are aggressive, which means both of them will be wiped out.
With the US-Iran situation escalating, longs could be taken out first and then late shorts. pic.twitter.com/41FDAXsYFR
— Ted (@TedPillows) February 18, 2026
Santiment reported that Ethereum’s proof-of-stake contract now holds more than 50% of total historical ETH issuance for the first time in the network’s 11-year history. The exact figure reported was 50.18%.
Smart money is massively staking $ETH! pic.twitter.com/kZkVeIClwD
— Crypto Rover (@cryptorover) February 18, 2026
Staked ETH is locked in a one-way vault and cannot be traded or spent while staked. This reduces the amount of ETH actively circulating on the market.
Everstake noted that staking growth often picks up during slower trading periods and bear cycles. An estimated 120 million ETH currently exist on the network.
On the ETF side, SosoValue data showed Ethereum spot ETFs recorded $48.63 million in total net inflows. None of the nine Ethereum spot ETFs posted net outflows during the reported period.
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