(June 5): Ether sank to its lowest level in over a year as digital assets continued to sustain heavy losses after a gruelling week.
The second-largest cryptocurrency fell more than 8% to US$1,625 ($2,087) in on Friday, its lowest value since April 2025. Bitcoin dropped 3.9% to just above US$61,000. The tokens later pared some of the losses with bitcoin trading at around US$62,400 and ether close to US$1,673 in early morning in New York.
Smaller tokens fared worse, with so-called privacy coins in particular taking a pummelling. Zcash fell by more than half — its largest drop since May 2021 — over a 24-hour period after reports of a possible security flaw, while monero declined as much as 17%.
The losses extend what is already bitcoin’s longest losing streak since August, beginning after Strategy Inc on Monday announced it had sold a small sum of the token for the first time since 2022. Sustained outflows from US exchange-traded funds dedicated to the market, combined with a decoupling from record-breaking tech stocks, have sapped investor confidence.
“Bitcoin is fast approaching the psychological level of US$60,000,” said Caroline Mauron, co-founder of Orbit Markets. “The level proved a strong support in February and was last seen in 2024 before Trump’s election, so a clean breach is going to be damaging.”
The crypto rout comes after US stocks moved toward a historic weekly run of gains, powered by the artificial-intelligence trade that has boosted technology valuations. Traders are looking ahead to US employment data set to be released later on Friday, which could hold clues for the market ahead of next week’s Federal Reserve meeting.
See also: Bitcoin treasury firms shed US$62 bil in deepening crypto rout
“As global capital continues to flow toward AI and large-cap technology stocks, digital assets must compete with these high-growth sectors for investor allocation,” said Dean Chen, analyst at crypto exchange Bitunix. “However, if investors eventually begin to question the sustainability of US equity valuations, the pace of capital rotation and risk repricing could unfold far more rapidly than markets currently anticipate.”
Privacy token rout
Privacy coins such as zcash and monero had been a bright spot in an otherwise dismal crypto market since the sector began a significant sell-off in October. Part of the tokens’ appeal stems from how they obfuscate transaction data on blockchain networks, making it more difficult to track the flow of crypto and identify buyers and sellers.
See also: Bitcoin bounces off four-month low in bruising week for crypto
Until Wednesday, zcash had been up nearly 20% for the year. Its collapse comes after a Gizmodo report that the project had taken emergency action on Wednesday after discovering a critical bug in its systems that would have allowed attackers to create new tokens at will.
In a blog post on Wednesday, the Zcash Foundation said it had found “no evidence of unauthorised value creation.” The foundation didn’t immediately respond to a request for further comment on Friday.
Uploaded by Magessan Varatharaja
