Crypto's worst week since July 2024 deepens as bitcoin, ether near critical price levels

Crypto is on course for its worst week since July 2024, with the ether price approaching a critical support as a zcash exploit and AI capital rotation pile on the pressure.

What to know:

• Bitcoin lost nearly 15% this week and ether more than 17%, crypto's worst weekly performance since July 2024, against a backdrop of the lowest monthly spot trading volume since October 2023.
• Privacy coin zcash crashed more than 30% after a security researcher uncovered an exploit that could have minted unlimited tokens, dragging rivals monero and dash down with it, with Arthur Hayes adding to the pressure by disclosing his firm had sold its entire ZEC position.
• Ether is approaching $1,420, the level it bounced from in April 2025 before a four-month rally to record highs. A break below would open the door to 2022 bear market territory.

The crypto market is teetering on the brink of a major breakdown in price after suffering one of its worst weeks since July 2024.

Bitcoin BTC$61,875.23, currently trading around $62,500 has lost more 14.5% since midnight UTC on Monday morning, while ether (ETH) has plunged by more than 17%, dropping 5.5% on Friday alone.

Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, is now at its lowest level since April 2025, when it bounced at $1,420 before rallying to record highs over the subsequent four months. A break below that level would bring it toward 2022 bear-market levels, when it dipped below $900.

The broader altcoin market also suffered deep losses this week. One of the worst performers on Friday was zcash (ZEC), which tumbled by more than 30% after a security researcher found an exploit that would have minted "unlimited" tokens in its shielded pool.

There are multiple catalysts causing this week's slide. Strategy (MSTR) Executive Chairman Michael Saylor attributed it to capital rotation in light of a series of artificial intelligence IPOs in the U.S., while onchain analysts are pointing towards a lack of spot crypto volume.

CryptoQuant notes that spot trading volume fell to $679 billion in April, the lowest monthly level since October 2023, indicating a lack of demand.

Derivatives positioning

• BTC derivatives positioning has flipped from mild improvement to clear deleveraging this week. Open interest dropped 15% to $17 billion, with funding rates flipping negative to flat across multiple venues
• At Deribit, the rate dropped to -15% annualized, a notable reversal from the prior positive regime. The three-month annualized basis fell to 2.7% from 2.9% last week, confirming a pullback in institutional risk appetite.
• Options positioning has turned clearly defensive: Put/call volume has flipped to a 50/50 split over the past 24 hours, losing the prior call tilt, while the one-week 25-delta skew more than doubled to 27% from 13% a week ago. That signals a sharp escalation in demand for downside protection.
• Front-end implied volatility (DVOL) has climbed further to 47, confirming a sustained bid that aligns with the broader deleveraging in derivatives.
• Coinglass data shows $1.2 billion in 24-hour liquidations, with a 76-24 split between longs and shorts. Bitcoin ($364 million), ether ($291 million) and zcash ($107 million) were the leaders in terms of notional liquidations.
• The Binance liquidation heatmap indicates $60,900 as a core BTC liquidation level to monitor, in case of a price drop.

Token talk

• Zcash's (ZEC) plight on Friday sowed seeds of doubt across privacy coins, with monero (XMR) losing 12% since midnight UTC and dash (DASH) dropping 9%.
• ZEC's losses were compounded by BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes, who said on X that his firm had sold its entire allocation of the token.
• There were also heavy losses for ADA$0.1613, which tumbled by more than 10% after the project's founder, Charles Hoskinson, said that he was "taking a break" after warning of ecosystem failures.
• AI tokens lost their early week momentum as FET, NEAR and TAO fell 4%-6% despite outperforming the rest of the market on Monday.
• One reason for altcoin holders to be hopeful is the fact that the average relative strength index (RSI) across all crypto pairs is in "oversold" territory, suggesting that a relief bounce could be on the cards this weekend.

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BTCBTC$61,875.23◢2.59%

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