- Zcash price plunged to $217, hitting a four-month low amid a 20% dip.
- The privacy coin dumped as bears pushed Bitcoin under $70,000.
- ZEC traded around $228 at the time of writing, but risks breaching support at $200.
Zcash (ZEC) has declined by more than 20% in the past 24 hours, accelerating its sharp descent amid an increasingly bearish cryptocurrency market.
The privacy coin’s dip to below $220, the first time in four months, came as Bitcoin crashed to $69,500 and Ethereum fell to lows of $2,070.
Among other top altcoin losers on the day was Cardano, which broke to $0.26.
Monero, Dash, and Decred all tanked as privacy coins suffered the bearish flip, hurting cryptocurrencies.
Notably, BTC’s dip has Michael Saylor’s Strategy sitting on approximately $4.5 billion of unrealised losses on the company’s 713,502 BTC.
Meanwhile, BitMine’s 4.2 million ETH currently has about $7.5 billion in unrealised losses.
Top privacy coin turns bearish
Zcash’s plunge stands out among privacy coins, especially after the ZEC price recently jumped to highs above $744 as Bitcoin struggled.
Headwinds amid waning demand now see Zcash changing hands at lows of $217, just a few weeks after it topped $540.
The more than 20% dip in the past 24 hours and 40% nosedive in the past week put Zcash at risk of further technical breakdown.
Capitulation among holders has accelerated sell volumes, with a 36% spike to $538 million in the past day.
Despite the losses, Zcash tops Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Monero in terms of overall performance over the past year.
Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan shared this view via X.
The relative returns of different monetary crypto assets since Jan. 1, 2025, is remarkable:
Bitcoin (BTC): -22%
Bitcoin Cash (BCH): +23%
Monero (XRM): +97%
Zcash (ZEC): +347%Lots of confounding variables here, including that BTC holders were sitting on the biggest…
— Matt Hougan (@Matt_Hougan) February 5, 2026
Zcash risks plunge below $200
Bears have relentlessly pressured ZEC bulls since the cryptocurrency’s 2025 peak above $740, when early privacy hype drove explosive growth.
Now, after dipping to $217 on February 5, 2026, ZEC risks testing sub-$200 levels.
On Feb. 5, the altcoin came close to the critical psychological support after failing to recover following Electric Coin Company’s core team exit.
Continued regulatory scrutiny on privacy tokens and market-wide profit-taking amid Bitcoin’s latest price crash are key negative triggers.
While ZEC has shattered its key trendline support at $250, a daily RSI deep in oversold territory suggests a rebound is likely.
However, the downturn highlights the privacy coin’s struggles amid broader market volatility, and breaching $200 might result in a new downtrend.
Key support levels beneath this would be $173 and $125 – levels reached in October 2025 before the parabolic surge to the multi-year highs above $700.
Per CoinMarketCap data, ZEC traded around $228 across major exchanges during the early US session on Thursday.
This aligned with Bitcoin’s slight bounce above $70,500, and Monero looked to hold $345.
