AVAX · 1H · DOWNTREND

My previous short from the 8.62–8.68 zone never triggered — price topped out at 8.476 and never reached the entry zone, so there was no confirmation and no trade. The setup is still alive and structurally unchanged: price is sitting below all four EMAs, the daily trend is down, and the entire MA stack is sloping bearish. The 8.62–8.68 zone remains the magnet for a rejection entry, with the dense liquidation cluster above at 8.68 and the EMA 200 (now around 8.50) compressing overhead. Nothing has changed structurally to give me a reason to shift the read.

What I'm watching is exactly the same two-step: I need price to rally back into that 8.62–8.68 zone first, then print a 1H close back below 8.55 to confirm the rejection. The EMA 9 is at 8.31, EMA 20 at 8.33 — both rolling over and sitting just above current price. Any bounce that stalls under those will be telling, but the confirmation level stays at the zone. Funding is a mild 0.0004% per 8h, longs slightly paying — no extreme squeeze risk, which keeps the bearish bias clean. The dense liquidation cluster at 8.03 sits as the first magnet below, and 7.77 is the extended target if that breaks.