Analysis of the price movement of ETH on the afternoon of December 23

Looking at today's candlestick chart, ETH surged to 3043.03 in the afternoon before starting to turn around. In the afternoon, the decline became increasingly fierce, hitting a low of 2945.01, and the current quote is 2954.31. In short, the short-term bears have firmly controlled the pace, and the downward trend won't ease up anytime soon.

**Key Technical Signals**

On the hourly chart, a typical "high break and return + step-down" pattern has appeared, consecutively breaking through the integer levels of 3000 and 2980, resulting in a large bearish candle. The moving averages are also in a complete bearish arrangement, and there are no obvious signs of a decline in the downward momentum.

Support and resistance levels are viewed as follows: 2950 is the last line of defense at the moment. Once breached, the new targets become 2930 to 2900; looking upwards, 2970 is the recent resistance. If there is to be a rebound, it would have to surpass the significant barrier of 3000 to catch its breath.

On the volume side, the bearish candlesticks are quite large during the decline, but the trading volume is weak during the rebound at lower levels, indicating that there are no buyers supporting the market below, and panic selling continues to pour in.

**How is the afternoon most likely to move**

The highest probability is that ETH will weakly fluctuate within the range of 2950 to 2970. If it cannot hold 2950, it will continue to test the bottom between 2930 and 2900; conversely, if it stabilizes at 2950, there may be a small rebound, but it will be difficult to break through the pressure zone of 2970 to 3000, and the probability of a reversal is very low.

The unlikely scenario is that the entire cryptocurrency market suddenly receives positive news or a capital inflow, causing ETH to quickly rebound above 3000. However, from a technical and financial perspective, this situation is basically unrealistic.

**Trading Strategy**

For short-term trading: Don't rush to buy the dip, wait to see if the 2950 level can stabilize; if it rebounds to the 2970 to 3000 range, you can try shorting with a light position, and set the stop-loss above 3000.

For the medium to long term: Don't rush to act yet. Wait until the downward momentum clearly weakens (for example, when a low-position doji or a bullish engulfing pattern appears), or until the price stabilizes above 3000 before considering building a position.

Risk warning: Cryptocurrency prices are influenced by macro policies and market sentiment. Technical analysis is only a reference; actual operations must control position and stop-loss effectively.