In recent years, there haven't been many market movements that truly make your heart skip a beat. But the current order book for ETH has indeed reached a point where it demands serious attention.

On the surface, it appears to be oscillating around $3,230, but in reality, both bulls and bears have already engaged in a "battle of attack and defense" here. Above, there's a massive short position—according to the latest liquidation data, around $3300 there are $809 million worth of short positions stacked, with an alarmingly high density. Looking downward, below $3150, there are $1.053 billion in long orders lying in wait. These two figures might just seem like "high" or "low" levels, but for traders dealing with real money, any price break through could trigger a chain reaction.

It's important to clarify an often-overlooked mechanism—ADL auto-deleveraging. Many people treat liquidation charts as a "direction guide," judging whether the market will go up or down just by the height of the bars. However, what they don't realize is that exchanges operate with a systematic risk control logic behind the scenes. When the price breaks through $3300, the margin ratios of a large number of shorts will instantly become invalid, and the exchange will first proceed with normal liquidation procedures. But if the order book cannot accommodate these liquidations, the system will activate ADL, forcibly hedging positions—at this point, not only the shorts are affected, but even the most extreme long positions may be forcibly reduced.

From another perspective, if the price effectively breaks below $3150, then the over $1 billion long orders become a trigger point. Once a series of limit-downs occurs, the triggered passive liquidation wave will spread like dominoes, and those who didn't manage risk properly during the bottom-fishing could face a direct liquidation. So, the key now isn't guessing whether the next move is up or down, but understanding the "potential energy" behind these two price levels—whoever breaks through first will control the rhythm moving forward.