Crypto markets faced a wave of headwinds on July 24 as Zcash (ZEC) slumped toward the $500 psychological support and Bitcoin (BTC) hovered near $65,000 amid corporate treasury sales, a major mining bankruptcy, and a $1.2 billion options expiry.
Zcash price fell 5.5% over the past week, slipping below $520 and triggering more than $2 million in long liquidations. Sellers intensified pressure after the token lost $510, activating automated stop orders. The decline was amplified by a broader risk-off shift: the Nasdaq Composite dropped over 2%, led by Tesla’s 14% rout and Alphabet’s 7% loss, while the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield hit an 18-month high near 4.70%. Cryptocurrency funds also bled capital—U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs posted $225 million in net outflows on July 23, with BlackRock’s IBIT accounting for $202 million of that.
On the charts, ZEC fell below its 20-day moving average at $514.77 but held above the 50-day SMA at $477.05 and the 100-day SMA at $466.50. The 4-hour structure formed a rounded-top pattern with a potential target near $371 if $500 fails. Momentum indicators remain bearish, with the RSI at 35.11 and MACD below its signal line. Trader Ardi said a reclaim of $530 would neutralize the bearish setup, while $550 is the breakout level; failure to defend $500 could force closure of long positions built around $425. A three-day liquidation heatmap from CoinGlass showed heavy overhead concentration at $524–$529 and a dense liquidity pocket at $490–$494.
Dampening the outlook further is the Ironwood (NU6.3) upgrade, set to activate on July 28 at block 3,428,143. The upgrade retires the Orchard shielded pool and introduces a corrected pool with an accounting turnstile to prevent counterfeit ZEC. Temporary wallet and exchange interruptions are expected, adding caution for short-term traders. A silver lining is the new Rust-based full-node client Zakura, targeting 50,000 private transactions per second.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin faced its own pressures. Several publicly listed treasury companies, including Satsuma Technology and Smarter Web Company, have begun selling portions of their BTC holdings to repay debt after Bitcoin’s prolonged decline from its $126,080 all-time high. Even Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) paused acquisitions for four weeks, selling shares to bolster cash reserves to $3.2 billion. The mining sector was rattled by Poolin’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy, listing liabilities between $100 million and $500 million with a plan to sell West Texas mining assets via a $52 million stalking-horse bid.
Positive regulatory developments provided some support: progress on the CLARITY Act, which aims to establish clearer rules for digital assets, helped offset the bearish sentiment. Nevertheless, the expiration of 19,000 Bitcoin options worth $1.2 billion on July 24, with a put-call ratio of 0.89 and max pain at $64,500, threatens to inject short-term volatility. Bitcoin traded at $64,923.86, down 0.7%, with key support at $62,210.
