The crypto market kicked off June with a heavy selloff. According to OKX data, Bitcoin fell to $66,500, Ethereum plunged 8% to breach the $1,900 level and trade at $1,855, while Solana (SOL) slid to $73. The selloff quickly spread across majors, altcoins and crypto-related stocks.
Derivatives markets were shaken by a massive liquidation event. Over the past 24 hours, total liquidations surpassed $1.7 billion, the highest since February this year, with long positions suffering the most — Bitcoin longs alone accounted for over $1.5 billion in forced closes.
Bitcoin spot ETFs recorded a single-day net outflow of $483.8 million, underlining the institutional exodus that has become the core driver of the decline. The crypto market's correlation with the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged to 84%, suggesting both are facing a common macro-level selling pressure. As Ethereum broke below the $1,900 psychological level, automatic stop-loss orders and derivative liquidations triggered a cascade effect across exchanges like Bitstamp and Binance, accelerating the downside momentum.
Bitcoin ETFs saw a net outflow of $2.3 billion in May alone, marking the largest monthly withdrawal since 2026 and the most severe since November 2025. This starkly contrasts with net inflows of $1.32 billion in March and $1.97 billion in April. The reversal signals that institutional selling is now outpacing what price declines alone would imply.
HYPE Bucks the Trend with a New All-Time High
Against the broader market weakness, Hyperliquid (HYPE) stood out as a strong performer. On June 2, HYPE hit an all-time high of $75.51 before pulling back to roughly $68 at press time, a decline of about 8% from the prior day but still a gain of approximately 15% over the past week. With a market cap of around $15.9 billion and a 24-hour trading volume of $1.54 billion, HYPE ranks 10th among all crypto assets globally. In a market that fell 7.5% over the last seven days, HYPE's 15% weekly advance demonstrates notable relative strength.
ZEC Rallies as Regulatory Overhang Lifts
Zcash (ZEC) emerged as the most striking contrarian play. In the past 24 hours, ZEC surged more than 7%, reaching an intraday high of $628 and briefly climbing to the 11th spot by market cap, surpassing $11 billion in total valuation. The immediate catalyst was the ZEC Foundation's Q1 report confirming that the SEC has closed its investigation into Zcash with no enforcement action. For a privacy coin that had long been dogged by regulatory uncertainty, the market interpreted this as a major compliance green light. Although the news was actually released weeks ago, ZEC's continued strength this time reflects its solid underlying fundamentals.
Looking at a longer timeframe, ZEC bottomed at $185 in February and then rallied strongly to a May high of $688, marking a gain of more than 270%. The number of shielded addresses has grown from 1.47 million in 2024 to 5.11 million currently, reflecting accelerating on-chain demand for privacy. From a technical perspective, analyst Ali Martinez notes that ZEC's 12-hour chart has triggered a TD Sequential buy signal. If the $500 support level holds, the next target would be $642. Furthermore, the governance vote for the Zcash network upgrade NU7 is expected to kick off in June 2026, and the upcoming technical roadmap may continue to provide price support.
