Zcash slipped 8% in a day, giving back part of a rally that took it above $1,600 for the first time since 2016. One analyst says a cup-and-handle pattern marks a local top and could eventually send the price down to $200, as Zcash and Monero together drove a five-month, $24.54 billion surge across the privacy coin sector.
Zcash dropped 8% over 24 hours, retreating from a ten-year high above $1,600 to roughly $1,470 per coin, according to CoinGecko data. Analyst Crypto Patel says a cup-and-handle structure on the chart points to a local top and has urged caution in the $1,600 to $2,000 range.
Early Wednesday, ZEC tagged $1,679.83 before sliding to $1,476 that same night, about 12% off the high, and closed near $1,498. The slide continued into Thursday, with the coin's low at $1,456.92 and price trading near $1,465, still up about 73% for September.
Crypto Patel believes that if the current cycle enters a distribution and downtrend phase, the price could dump below $500 within one to three years, with a full structural reversal potentially dragging ZEC down to $200. Separately, trader Zayn said a short position on ZEC has produced a paper profit that has risen above $60,000, after an initial $30,000 gain.
The rally leading into this week's pullback drew on Grayscale's ZCSH spot ETF, which began trading on NYSE Arca on August 25 as the first U.S.-listed spot ETF for a privacy coin. Over the past five months, the privacy coin sector added roughly $24.54 billion, with Zcash's market cap alone swelling by $20.27 billion and Monero's rising by $4.33 billion.
Futures positioning still leans cautious: funding sits at a flat 0.01% baseline while about 64% of accounts are short, and open interest has fallen from about 593,000 ZEC on September 4 to roughly 446,000, or about $650 million, even as price climbed around $450 over that stretch.
Sources: CryptoPotato, Live Bitcoin News, Bitcoin.com
Trading involves risk.
Risk Disclaimer
