Last Friday, the cryptocurrency market experienced a large-scale sell-off, causing the total altcoin market capitalization to fall to $880 billion. Zcash was the hardest-hit major token, plunging over 40% to $264.80.
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Key Takeaways
- Key points:
- On June 5, Ethereum (ETH) plunged 10% to $1,545, triggering a market-wide sell-off and liquidating $468 million in leveraged positions.
- After AI tools discovered security vulnerabilities, ZEC plunged over 40%, losing its leading position in privacy coins to Monero.
- Fhenix founder Guy Zyskind expects that this ZEC vulnerability will shift industry attention toward Shuttle Cryptography (FHE) privacy technology.
The market bleed up, causing the total market capitalization of altcoins to fall below $1 trillion
On Friday, the cryptocurrency market was thrown into turmoil, with several high-cap altcoins dropping by double digits, causing the total altcoin market cap to plunge below the $1 trillion mark. Ethereum (ETH) led the decline among altcoins, plunging from just above $1,700 to an intraday low of $1,545, a level last seen in April 2025. The digital asset fell 10% within 24 hours, pushing its market capitalization below $200 billion.
As of press time (2:45 PM Eastern Time), ETH has dropped nearly 22% over seven days, while its year-to-date gain is close to 50%. As the second-largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum's price volatility led to the liquidation of over $468 million in leveraged positions, with long positions accounting for 87% of the total, or $408 million. Ethereum's recent decline in recent weeks has left leading Ethereum custody company Bitmine with a paper loss of $10.3 billion.
Other high-cap altcoins such as BNB, XRP, and SOL also declined, but all fell less than 10%. The situation is similar for many other altcoins.
However, unlike the recent trend where a few tokens rose against the market, almost all altcoins recorded declines during the cryptocurrency market sell-off on June 5. On June 2, HYPE tokens hit an all-time high of $75.48, but plunged 14% that day to $57.12. Meanwhile, LAB hit a new high of $27.30 during the market crash on June 2, plunging 23% in 24 hours but rising 89% over seven days.
Among the recently strong performing tokens, ZEC may have seen the biggest decline, plunging from just under $540 to an intraday low of $264.80—a drop of over 40% in 24 hours. However, unlike similar coins, ZEC's crash was triggered by the exposure of a vulnerability in the Orchard shielding pool that has existed since 2022. According to security expert Taylor Hornby, the vulnerability made it possible to counterfeit ZEC tokens.
Zcash 图表：markets.bitcoin.com
尽管ZODL迅速部署了紧急软分叉来修复该漏洞，但这一关键漏洞竟在未被察觉的情况下潜伏了四年之久——最终竟被AI工具发现——这一消息在社区内引发了巨大震动。 这一消息引发了市场恐慌，促使BitMEX联合创始人亚瑟·海耶斯（Arthur Hayes）等知名人士——他长期以来一直是ZEC最积极的拥护者之一——清仓了其持仓。
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隐私之争：零知识证明 vs. 全渲染加密
一些观察人士认为，该事件暴露了支撑Zcash协议的零知识（ZK）证明的局限性。区块链隐私领域的先驱、Fhenix创始人盖伊·齐斯金德（Guy Zyskind）认为，这一发现应使人们关注全同态加密（FHE）等替代加密技术的优势。
“与Zcash/ZK相比，FHE的一个显著优势在于，它允许在加密域内进行实际计算。这意味着理论上，你可以将所有用户的币余额总和进行加密，并确保即使软件存在某些漏洞，该数值也不会增长或膨胀。 “在零知识证明（ZK）方案中，你要么向所有人公开这一数值，要么将其隐藏。Zcash 选择了后者以换取额外的隐私保护，但代价是用户无法确信总供应量保持稳定，”Zyskind 表示。
Although ZEC later rebounded to around $320, this astonishing plunge shrank its market value from about $9 billion to $5.37 billion. In the process, it ceded the top privacy coin throne to Monero.
Meanwhile, as of the time of writing, the total altcoin market capitalization has dropped to $880 billion, seemingly retreating toward the level seen in early February.