In under ten minutes, ACE short sellers saw their hourly holding fees surge to minus 0.2856 percent even as the token price ticked up from $0.2094 to $0.2156.
Imagine ACE is trading at about $0.21. Suddenly, a rush of traders floods the market, placing heavy bets that the price will fall.
Over nine minutes, the rate charged to downward bettors deepened from minus 0.2638 percent to minus 0.2856 percent per hour, across ten rapid alerts, while ACE price rose slightly to $0.2156.
Funding is a periodic fee exchanged directly between buyers and sellers to keep trading balanced. When bets become heavily one-sided downward, sellers must pay buyers every hour just to keep their trades open.
Ten alerts in less than ten minutes show an accelerating crowd. Sellers are paying increasingly high fees every hour, putting themselves on a strict financial clock to see the price fall.
If price keeps rising instead of falling, short sellers may panic to avoid mounting losses and hourly fees. Exiting a short bet requires buying the token, which can suddenly launch the price upward.
Deep negative funding does not guarantee an upward spike. If heavy spot selling hits the market or the shorts hold enough capital, price can still decline further.
Do not think negative funding means the price is guaranteed to crash. Think of it as an overcrowded bet where sellers are paying steep fees to hold their ground.