ACE short sellers have consistently paid a premium of around -0.12% per hour to hold their positions, signaling heavy crowding in bets against the token.
Imagine ACE is trading at roughly $0.18. A wave of traders rushes in simultaneously to bet that the price will drop, heavily tilting the market toward one side.
Because so many traders wanted to bet on a price drop, they had to pay cash directly to the fewer traders betting on a rise. This payment repeated every minute for ten minutes at roughly 0.12% per hour.
This mechanism is called the funding rate. When it turns deeply negative, traders betting on price drops pay traders betting on gains to keep futures prices tethered to spot prices.
This mechanism is called the funding rate. When it turns deeply negative, traders betting on price drops pay traders betting on gains to keep futures prices aligned with regular prices.
A single alert can be a brief blip. But when negative funding repeats across ten straight minutes while the price holds near $0.1824, it confirms persistent and aggressive downward pressure.