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).

I wouldn't until Jan 10th.

That's when they decide on Blackrock's (and several other) Bitcoin ETFs.

It never made any sense.

Personally, I wouldn't short it. I think it's dead (or rather, it was never really alive), but I wouldn't short it.

but they smell quite funny since many years ;))

https://99bitcoins.com/bitcoin-obituaries/