The price of ZKsync's native token, ZK, has experienced significant volatility following the successful launch of its major Atlas upgrade and a public endorsement from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. The combination of technical advancement and high-profile validation initially propelled the token's price upward by over 120% from its lows on Saturday, before a sharp correction ensued.
The Atlas upgrade, which went live recently, represents a substantial technical leap for the Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solution. Key features include near one-second ZK finality, full multi-VM compatibility with EVM support, and benchmarked throughput exceeding 15,000 transactions per second. The upgrade also incorporates Airbender, a high-performance zkVM for fast verification, and a new shared-liquidity framework to improve capital efficiency between Layer 1 and Layer 2.
Vitalik Buterin's praise, posted on social media on November 1st, significantly amplified the event's visibility. He stated, "ZKsync has been doing a lot of underrated and valuable work in the ethereum ecosystem. Excited to see this come from them!" This endorsement was interpreted as strong validation from a leading industry figure.
The market reaction was swift but followed a classic "buy the rumor, sell the news" pattern. After the initial surge, the ZK token retraced roughly 26.2% within 24 hours, sharply underperforming the broader crypto market's 2.75% decline during the same period. Technical indicators showed the rally was overextended, with the Relative Strength Index (RSI) hitting 72.5, its highest since May. The token faced rejection near the $0.06322 resistance level (23.6% Fibonacci retracement).
Broader market dynamics contributed to the pullback, including a rotation of capital out of altcoins as Bitcoin dominance rose to 59.66% and a drop in the Crypto Fear & Greed Index to 36. Derivatives data showed a 22.7% monthly drop in ZK open interest, indicating reduced speculative leverage.
Despite the technical milestone, analysts note that zkSync's on-chain adoption metrics, such as daily active users and total value locked (TVL) on the mainnet, remain modest. However, the broader ecosystem's multi-chain TVL is in the billions. A potential growth driver is Prividium, the project's enterprise-focused solution, which is reportedly being tested by over 30 banks for zero-knowledge settlement models.
Price forecasts highlight $0.0407 as a critical support zone. A break below could lead to further declines toward $0.0320, while key resistance levels are seen at $0.0568, $0.0657, and $0.0759. The near-term outlook balances strong long-term fundamentals against fragile short-term sentiment, with the next growth phase dependent on translating technical promise into sustained real-world adoption and economic activity.
