Traders betting against ACE caused recurring negative funding spikes within ten minutes, meaning bearish traders are paying a growing fee to hold their positions.
Imagine ACE is trading around 17 cents. A growing wave of traders wants to place bets that the price will go down, crowding heavily onto one side of the market.
Across ten minutes, automated alerts fired ten times in a row. The regular fee charged to balance these one-sided bets dropped steadily from minus 0.0544 percent to minus 0.0569 percent while the price held steady near 17 cents.
Across ten minutes, ten consecutive alerts triggered as the rate dropped from minus 0.0544 percent to minus 0.0569 percent. Even though price barely moved from 17 cents, the cost to bet on a decline grew noticeably steeper.
In crypto markets, when too many people make the same bet, the platform charges them a recurring fee called the funding rate. When this rate is negative, it means sellers are paying buyers directly just to keep their positions open.
A single alert could be a momentary blip. But ten consecutive alerts in under ten minutes show that traders are persistently opening more downside bets, willing to pay an increasing penalty to maintain their positions.