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Ether (ETH) is trading at $1,726.67 on June 18, down 1.26% on the day, as per TradingView data. The price has retreated from the $1,800 level tested on June 16 and held near $1,780 on June 17, confirming a sell-the-news reaction following the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decision.
The pullback erases roughly half of the recovery gained since the June 7 cycle low near $1,520.
CryptoQuant analyst IT Tech reported on June 17 that altcoin spot sell pressure, excluding both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether, has reached a five-year extreme.
Altcoin Sell Pressure Hits a 5-Year Extreme
“This is not a dip. It’s 15 months of continuous net selling on Spot Exchanges. Cumulative buy/sell volume diff (alts excluded BTC/ETH): deepest negative reading since data began in 2020.” – By @IT_Tech_PL pic.twitter.com/rexf7RK3r1
— CryptoQuant.com (@cryptoquant_com) June 17, 2026
The cumulative buy/sell volume difference for altcoins outside BTC and ETH has fallen to its deepest negative level since CryptoQuant began tracking the metric in 2020, with 15 consecutive months of net selling on centralized exchanges. The indicator was near zero as recently as early 2025, then reversed sharply lower and continued to decline without interruption.
The explicit exclusion of ETH from that metric is the analytically significant detail. While the broader altcoin market is in the most extreme structural distribution phase on record, ETH-specific demand data tells a different story.
Tom Lee(@fundstrat)'s #Bitmine bought another 20,000 $ETH($35.85M) from #FalconX 5 hours ago.https://t.co/eeMZJkEUx4 pic.twitter.com/7APpHzUbDZ
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) June 17, 2026
Large ETH wallets added over $58 million in the 48 hours surrounding the June 17 FOMC decision, with Tom Lee-linked Bitmine buying 20,000 ETH ($35.85 million) and a wallet tagged to “geministar.eth” buying 11,142 ETH ($19.94 million), per Lookonchain data.
Whale geministar.eth just bought another 11,142 $ETH($19.94M).
In the past 2 days, geministar.eth has bought a total of 32,278 $ETH($57M).https://t.co/rxZgIITp1V pic.twitter.com/kD3WfK6Aav
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) June 17, 2026
US spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) returned to net inflows on June 15 with $22.5 million, breaking a stretch where outflows occurred on all but two sessions between May 11 and June 12. ETH is not immune to the broader risk-off pullback evident in the June 18 price action and the June 17 ETF flows, but it is not experiencing the same structural capitulation as the rest of the altcoin market.
The FOMC held rates at 3.50%-3.75% on June 17 in Kevin Warsh’s first meeting as Federal Reserve chair, but the updated dot plot erased the previously projected 2026 rate cut and signaled a possible hike instead, pushing any reduction into 2027-2028.
The decision triggered $158 million in crypto liquidations within 12 hours, with Bitcoin and Ether together accounting for $76.48 million of that total, as per CoinGlass data.
Warsh’s communication approach marks a structural departure from his predecessor. He described the shortened statement as one that “just gives you the facts, as best we can judge it,” and his refusal to submit a personal rate projection signals a Fed that may communicate differently than markets are accustomed to pricing. That uncertainty itself, independent of the actual hawkish lean, is likely to keep volatility elevated around future FOMC meetings.
The daily ETH/USD chart and technical data from TradingView show the moving average (MA) structure has reverted following the post-FOMC pullback.
Only the 10-day simple moving average (SMA) at $1,706.2 remains below the current price. Every other MA has flipped back above price: The 10-day exponential moving average (EMA) at $1,735.4, the 20 EMA at $1,784.3, the 20 SMA at $1,752.9, the volume-weighted moving average (VWMA) at $1,726.8, and the Hull MA at $1,788.4, all now showing an upward signal. The remaining MA stack sits above the current price.
The relative strength index (RSI) reads 39.8, retreating from the 43.8 reading of June 17 but still above the deeply oversold levels of early June.
The average directional index (ADX) reads 39.6, continuing to moderate from the 50.74 peak of June 11.
The moving average convergence/divergence (MACD) at -82.2 continues showing an upward signal despite the price pullback, narrowing toward the zero line.
Momentum at 35.9 and Bull Bear Power at -7.6 both flipped to being bearish, the clearest signal of the post-FOMC reversal in trader positioning.
The divergence between ETH-specific demand signals and the broader altcoin capitulation IT Tech flagged is the central question for the days ahead: whether ETH continues decoupling from the rest of the altcoin market or gets pulled back into the same structural selling pressure as risk appetite resets following Warsh’s hawkish debut.
Glamsterdam’s devnet progress continues independently of both dynamics, with no mainnet date confirmed.
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