Bitcoin is up, considerably, in the last ±6 months. Centralized exchanges like FTX or Binance have always been more convenient than logical, and the effect of their "collapse" on the market as a whole will not last beyond the media's attention span.
P.S., it's not just used for illegal activities, but is in fact a vital part of remittences abroad in places without stable currencies.
No, that's not how anything works. The point is that it's alive as long as someone is running a node.
Whether the price will move up or down in the future - I think it's naive to think that you can profitably speculate on its price movement (long or short).
Personally, I wouldn't short it. I think it's dead (or rather, it was never really alive), but I wouldn't short it.
It never made any sense.
I wouldn't until Jan 10th.
That's when they decide on Blackrock's (and several other) Bitcoin ETFs.
but they smell quite funny since many years ;))