Ethereum Ends Q3 Up 71% After Two Losing Quarters, Clearing…

The Ethereum price is running into the close of the third quarter at about $2,687, up 71.2% from the $1,569.91 that CoinGlass records as Ether's 1 July open. That follows a 29.26% fall in Q1 and a 25.28% fall in Q2, which means one quarter has undone most of two.

Published figures for the same quarter run from 60.62% to 71%, and the spread comes from when each was taken rather than from any dispute in the data. Measure Ether on 13 September, and you get the lower number. Measure it today, and you get the higher one, because the Ethereum price added roughly $270 in the back half of the month.

Ethereum Price Closes Q3 Up 71.2% From a $1,569.91 Opening Level

Coinglass has Ethereum opening on 1 July at $1,569.91 and the Ethereum price at $2,687.27 on 30 September, with the arithmetic on those two inputs giving 71.2%. The figure is not final, since the quarter has not closed and Ether traded between $2,656.92 and $2,738.51 during Wednesday's session. A close anywhere inside that band leaves the quarter above 70%.

Bitcoin gained about 42% over the same three months, its second-best Q3 on record, after falling 22.2% in Q1 and 14.09% in Q2. The Ethereum price fell harder in both losing quarters and has recovered harder in this one, which is the usual shape of the pair rather than a break from it. Neither is back to even for the year, and the Ethereum price is still down 9.47% in 2026 and 45.75% from its August 2025 high of $4,953.73.

Investor Takeaway

The 60.62% Reading Everyone Quotes Was Taken on 13 September

The 60.62% figure entered circulation through a 13 September flash citing Coinglass data, which called it ether's second-best Q3 behind the 66.55% returned in Q3 2025. Crypto Briefing carried the same number on 19 September, describing it as measured to mid-September.

The Ethereum price passed the 2025 benchmark shortly afterward, with the quarter quoted at 70.68% on 24 September and 71% by the 27th. The 66.55% that Q3 2025 delivered was Ether's strongest third quarter since 2016 on CoinGlass data, so this quarter clears the best comparison anyone has published, though returns from Ether's first two years sit outside that window and the outlets making superlative claims do not agree with each other.

$1.75 Billion of August ETF Money and a Treasury Buyer Still $3.9 Billion Down

US spot ether funds took in $1.75 billion in August, their strongest month since August 2025, after bleeding more than $1 billion across May and June, and the Ethereum price turned with them. The recovery in fund demand ran across the asset class, with US Bitcoin ETFs pulling in $2.4 billion as 2026 net flows swung positive. Farside data puts September's flows through the 30th at about $1.26 billion and cumulative net inflows since the July 2024 launch at roughly $14 billion, a total that makes some of the larger quarterly inflow figures in circulation impossible to reconcile.

Corporate buying is the louder bid. BitMine said on 28 September that it holds 6,001,302 ETH, or 4.9% of supply, inside $17.2 billion of total holdings, built from the 560,000 ETH it started with in July 2025 and topped up through purchases that carried it past 4.8% of supply this year. Its average cost is $3,337, which leaves the position about $3.925 billion underwater even after a 71.2% quarter and an Ethereum price up more than 78% from its 6 June cycle low of $1,505.68.

Ethereum Price Enters Q4 With the 30-Year Treasury at 5.61%

August core PCE came in at 0.2% month-on-month against a 0.3% forecast and 3% year-on-year against 3.3%, and the 30-year Treasury yield sits at 5.612%, its highest since 2002. A long-end yield above 5.5% is the clearest argument against the Ethereum price extending this run, since it raises the opportunity cost of holding an asset that pays a staking yield near 2.6%.

The catalysts pointing the other way are scheduled. The Ethereum Foundation activates the Glamsterdam upgrade on the Sepolia testnet on 6 October, and the staking amendments behind a $3,000 Q4 target continue to work through the SEC. Getting the Ethereum price to $3,000 from here needs another 11.6%, a modest ask next to what the last three months delivered.

Investor Takeaway