That breath was already swallowed up as the price, after peaking within the week, drifted bearishly all the way down to hover along the moving average. On the four-hour chart, several consecutive bearish candles are lined up; the momentum that had been thrust upward simply leaked straight into a pullback. This round of pumping is clearly a case of exhaustion—pushing higher any further would only count as stubbornly forcing it. In the spot order book, the sell orders are stacked noticeably thicker than the buy orders. The bulk of the aggressive trades is being dumped into those sell orders. Even open interest keeps shrinking along with the price. The bulls aren’t “bottom-fishing” for a bargain right now; they’re queuing up to hand over negotiating chips for the exit. The small amount of bids trying to pick up the slack can’t plug this escape hatch at all. Anyone who goes up and buys this moment is basically paying the toll for this round of forced liquidation.