I almost thought this round of regulatory bearish news was just crying wolf again, but it turned out to be a real blow—and $ETH genuinely stunned me.

A few days ago, I was still wondering whether I should hold on. I felt market sentiment was still okay, and the liquidation zone wasn’t that dense. But today, when I woke up, the number 1,696 directly snapped me back to reality.

This downturn wasn’t sudden, though. The funding rate had already started to weaken, and open interest was slowly shrinking—it's just that everyone didn’t want to believe it. They still thought it could be pulled back up.

My personal read is that this kind of slow, bearish drift on declining volume is more uncomfortable than a sudden crash. A sudden drop can still offer a chance to bet on a rebound, but a gradual bleed is like boiling a frog in warm water: cutting losses means you might miss the bounce, while holding on means you’re afraid it’ll keep sliding further down.

Looking back, that earlier sideways range was actually a trap. Once the dense long positions got swept out, there weren’t any decent support levels underneath—you could only look for the next liquidity pool.

My strategy right now is simple: stay in cash and wait. I’m not in a hurry to catch the bottom. I’ll wait for either an increase in volume or for the funding rate to reach extreme levels. In this kind of market, jumping in easily feels like catching a falling knife.

What do you think $ETH will do this time—will it go down to 1,600, or can it hold steady above 1,700 and rebuild a base? Talk about it in the comments.

Speaking of regulation, every time this kind of bearish news comes out, the market’s first reaction is to run for safety. But what truly affects where the capital flows is the stance taken toward exchanges and stablecoins after the regulation is implemented.

If an institution continues to tighten, $ETH and the altcoins’ liquidity will be compressed even further, making it much harder for rebounds in the short term. #Gate现货交易量增幅全球第一 #SpaceX市值超越微软跻身全球前五