Zcash dips 45% after critical orchard pool vulnerability raises counterfeit token risk

Key takeaways

  • ZEC is down 45% and is now trading around $309 per coin.
  • The vulnerability was fixed within days, and findings suggest that actual exploitation of the bug is unlikely.

Zcash Zcash fell sharply on Friday after researchers disclosed a critical vulnerability in its Orchard shielded transaction pool that could have theoretically enabled the creation of unlimited counterfeit tokens.

The price dropped about 45% to $309 with most of the decline occurring shortly after the security disclosure was made public.

Critical flaw found in Zcash Orchard shielded pool

The vulnerability was identified by security researcher Taylor Hornby during an audit commissioned by Shielded Labs, an independent support organization for the Zcash ecosystem.

According to the report, the issue was located in the Orchard circuit, the zero-knowledge proof system that secures private transactions within Zcash’s shielded pool.

The flaw allowed under-constrained inputs in elliptic curve computations, making it possible to pass invalid values as valid proofs

In a test environment, researchers were able to generate an undetectable counterfeit ZEC. The bug has existed since Orchard’s activation in May 2022. The vulnerability was patched on June 1, shortly after discovery.

Despite the severity of the issue, Shielded Labs said there is no clear evidence that the vulnerability was exploited in the wild.

Reasons cited include: The complexity of Orchard’s privacy system obscures transaction tracing, the bug remained undetected for years despite cryptographic scrutiny, and no confirmed anomalies in supply have been identified

However, the organization acknowledged that absolute certainty is impossible due to the privacy-preserving nature of shielded transactions.

ZEC dips by 45%. Will it recover soon?

The ZEC/USD 4-hour chart is bearish and efficient as Zcash has lost 45% of its value in the last 24 hours.

The momentum indicators have flipped bearish, with the RSI of 33 indicating an oversold condition. The MACD lines are also within the negative territory, adding further confluence to the bearish bias.

ZEC/USD 4H Chartsell

If the selloff continues, ZEC could drop below the Friday low of $245 and retest the $200 pychological level.

However, the bounce back above $300 indicates that the selloff could end soon. If the bulls regain control, ZEC could surge towards the first major resistance level at $413, with further hurdles around the $527 zone.

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XLM extends losses as weak retail demand weighs on sentiment

Key takeaways

  • XLM extends its loss for a fourth straight day as retail sentiment weakens and futures positioning declines. 
  • The token remains under bearish technical pressure, but is holding above its 200-day EMA and showing fading momentum. 

Stellar’s XLM extends its declines for a fourth consecutive session on Thursday, as selling pressure intensified across the cross-border payments sector. The token continues to struggle with weakening retail sentiment.

The broader correction highlights fading enthusiasm for remittance-focused crypto assets, which had previously benefited from narrative-driven rallies tied to institutional adoption and real-world asset tokenization themes.

Retail sentiment cools as futures positioning contracts

Recent derivatives data points to a sharp unwind in speculative positioning across both assets.

XLM futures open interest dropped to $260.35 million on Thursday, down significantly from Monday’s peak of $358.78 million, according to CoinGlass. 

The steady decline suggests traders are scaling back bullish bets that had formed around optimism linked to the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) partnership and asset tokenization narrative.

Stellar holds key support, but momentum weakens

The XLM/USD 4-hour chart is bearish and efficient as Stellar is down 9.5% in the last 24hours. Unlike XRP, Stellar is still maintaining a more constructive technical structure, trading above $0.2110 and holding above its 200-day EMA near $0.1975.

However, short-term momentum is deteriorating. The RSI has cooled sharply from overbought levels to around 44, signaling a growing bearish strength. Meanwhile, the MACD is approaching a potential bearish crossover as upward momentum continues to contract.

Immediate support is anchored at the 200-day EMA, and a breakdown below this level could trigger a deeper correction toward prior consolidation zones.

On the upside, a rebound from current levels could see XLM retest resistance near $0.2579, which previously capped gains in late May.

XLM/USD 4H Chart

XLM now sits at a technical crossroads, with weakening derivatives positioning and fading retail enthusiasm weighing on sentiment.

The current market conditions remain bearish as macroeconomic conditions suggest that the ongoing selloff could continue in the near to medium term.

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Hyperliuid dips below $70, but institutional demand remains high

Hyperliquid’s native token, HYPE, dropped below $70 on Thursday after delivering an 80% gain in May. The dip comes amid renewed weakness across the broader cryptocurrency market, where Bitcoin (BTC) slipped below $63,000 and sparked a wave of risk-off sentiment among investors.

A key catalyst behind HYPE’s recent surge has been rising institutional participation. Newly launched HYPE-focused exchange-traded funds (ETFs) attracted roughly $135 million in inflows last month, highlighting growing demand from professional investors and helping drive the token into price discovery territory.

While momentum remains firmly bullish, analysts caution that the rally has become increasingly stretched, even as long-term projections point toward a potential move above the $100 mark.

Capital rotates from Bitcoin ETFs to Hyperliquid products

Institutional flows reveal a stark contrast between Bitcoin and Hyperliquid investment products.

Bitcoin ETFs recorded $396.6 million in net outflows on Wednesday, extending cumulative withdrawals to $4.37 billion over the past 13 trading days. The trend suggests waning institutional appetite for the world’s largest cryptocurrency amid broader market uncertainty.

By comparison, HYPE-focused ETFs attracted $2.99 million in inflows on Wednesday, marking their 15th consecutive day of positive flows and bringing total inflows to approximately $140 million.

The data points to a broader rotation of capital toward exchange-related tokens, as investors increasingly focus on platforms generating tangible revenue and expanding their product ecosystems.

Further reinforcing this trend is the launch of Grayscale’s HYPE-focused ETF on Thursday, a development widely viewed as another sign of growing institutional confidence in the Hyperliquid ecosystem.

Hyperliquid’s growth story extends beyond ETF demand. According to Hyperscreener data, the platform’s HIP-3 protocol—which enables 24/7 trading of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), including publicly listed stocks, pre-IPO shares, and commodity perpetual futures—generated $62.63 billion in trading volume during May.

The milestone marks the third consecutive month in which HIP-3 volume exceeded $60 billion, underscoring the platform’s expanding role as an “everything exchange” serving multiple asset classes.

HYPE price outlook: Can HYPE reach $100?

HYPE traded above $67 at the time of writing, extending a rally that has now lasted five consecutive weeks.

Technical indicators continue to support a bullish outlook, although they also suggest the token may be approaching overheated conditions. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) sits at 82 on the weekly chart, deep in overbought territory, while the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator remains firmly positive with expanding bullish momentum.

From a technical perspective, HYPE is approaching the 127.2% Fibonacci extension level at $79.40. A decisive weekly close above this resistance could pave the way for a move beyond the psychologically important $100 threshold.

Should bullish momentum continue, the next major upside target sits near the 161.8% Fibonacci extension level at $114.75, which also aligns with a long-term overhead trendline.

HYPE/USD 4H Chart

Despite the strong uptrend, investors should remain aware of potential downside risks. The first significant support level lies near $59.45, which previously acted as a major Fibonacci high. If selling pressure intensifies, additional support could emerge around the 78.6% Fibonacci retracement level at $47.34.

For now, sustained institutional inflows, growing trading activity, and expanding product offerings continue to support the bullish case for Hyperliquid as it attempts to establish itself as one of the crypto market’s strongest-performing assets.

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Catapult Trade adds co-founder, expands operations after KuCoin Ventures investment

  • Catapult Trade has appointed Claire “Cookie” Dang as VP of Growth and Co-Founder.
  • Dang previously held growth and business development roles at Binance, KuCoin, and Crypto.com.
  • The expansion is being funded in part by the KuCoin Ventures investment.

Catapult Trade has appointed Claire “Cookie” Dang as VP of Growth and Co-Founder, the latest in a series of moves that have widened the trading platform’s operations following an investment from KuCoin Ventures.

Dang held growth and business development roles at Binance, KuCoin, and Crypto.com before joining and will lead community growth and international expansion.

Her arrival has come alongside a broader push on the company’s external presence.

Catapult Trade has launched a sponsored podcast, Terminally Online, featuring Web3 founders and operators, and has assembled a media network from acquired social channels with a combined reach of over 20 million followers.

The company has also run trading activity collaborations with the exchange Gate.

The expansion is being funded in part by the KuCoin Ventures investment, disclosed earlier this year; terms were not made public, and the company said its funding round remains open, with proceeds also directed toward regional expansion in markets underserved by conventional financial infrastructure.

Catapult Trade opened to the public in December 2025 after a pre-launch incentives campaign that built its first base of traders and creators.

The platform runs on algorithmically generated price charts rather than an orderbook or live price feed.

Each session’s full price path is generated in advance and committed to a cryptographic hash published before trading begins, then revealed at settlement, letting users verify that the chart was never altered mid-session.

The company frames the design as a correction to conditions on memecoin launchpads, where hidden information has consistently worked against retail traders.

Since launch, the platform has recorded more than $1.5 billion in cumulative trading volume and over 80,000 monthly active users, with no paid acquisition behind the figures.

The platform’s chart-generation engine has passed two independent security audits, most recently by Halborn and earlier by Hashlock, with the company committing to annual reviews.

A points system has run since launch, fueling speculation about a token distribution; the company has confirmed in community sessions that a token is planned, but has released no allocation or vesting details.

A second product, Catapult Hyper, is in development and would extend the platform from synthetic charts into multichain token launches built on LayerZero’s omnichain fungible token standard.

The build-out reflects the standards now being applied to crypto products.

Where the previous cycle’s flagships rested on token speculation, the current cohort, led by names such as Hyperliquid in perpetuals and Polymarket in prediction markets, is judged on user demand and revenue.

Catapult Trade is being scaled on the same terms, in a category, gamified short-session trading on verifiable charts, that has yet to see an incumbent at scale.

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Why Bitcoin price could fall below $62,000 despite oversold conditions

  • Bitcoin ETF outflows remain negative for 11 straight days, pressuring BTC.
  • $749 million in liquidations have accelerated the Bitcoin price drop.
  • RSI below 18 shows oversold conditions, but trend stays bearish.

Bitcoin (BTC) has been under sustained pressure, trading around the $63,548 level after a sharp multi-week decline that has erased a large portion of its recent recovery.

Notably, the BTC price decline reflects a combination of institutional selling, forced liquidations, and weakening market structure that continues to dominate short-term price action.

Even though technical indicators now show deeply oversold conditions, the broader flow of capital suggests that downside risk remains active.

The current setup places Bitcoin in a zone where short-term relief rallies are possible, but sustained recovery has yet to form.

Bitcoin ETF outflows weigh heavily on the BTC price

One of the most consistent pressures on Bitcoin has been the ongoing withdrawal of capital from US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds.

Data shows a stretch of 11 consecutive days of net outflows, including a single-day redemption of roughly $519 million on June 2.

Over the past ten days from May 25, 2026 to June 3, 2026, Bitcoin ETFs have witnessed over 3 billion worth of outflows according to CoinGlass data.

This pattern has effectively removed a major source of steady institutional demand.

According to Citi analysts, ETF flows account for about 45% of weekly return variation, highlighting how strongly prices now respond to institutional positioning.

With flows turning negative for nearly two weeks, Bitcoin has been left without its primary demand driver at a time when selling pressure is already elevated.

This shift is important because ETFs were previously absorbing large amounts of Bitcoin supply during the recovery phase.

The current reversal means that instead of acting as a stabilizing force, ETFs are now contributing to downside momentum.

Without a clear return of net inflows, price stability above the mid-$60,000 range has remained difficult to sustain.

Liquidations and macro pressure amplify the decline

Alongside ETF outflows, leveraged positions in the derivatives market have added fuel to the downturn.

More than $749.982 million in leveraged long positions have been liquidated within a 24-hour window during the sell-off, according to market data.

Bitcoin liquidations

These forced closures have accelerated price movement lower rather than allowing gradual adjustment.

Bitcoin’s drop below key technical zones has triggered additional selling, reinforcing a cascading effect where falling prices lead to further liquidation pressure.

At the same time, macroeconomic conditions have reduced the overall appetite for risk assets.

Strong US employment data has pushed expectations for Federal Reserve rate cuts further into the future, reinforcing a “higher-for-longer” interest rate environment.

This has reduced liquidity flowing into speculative markets, including crypto.

In addition, geopolitical tensions, particularly renewed instability involving Iran and broader global risk concerns, have also contributed to defensive positioning across financial markets.

In this environment, Bitcoin has continued to trade in line with high-risk assets rather than acting independently.

Technical structure shows oversold conditions but no confirmed reversal

From a technical perspective, Bitcoin is showing some of the most extreme oversold readings in recent months.

The 14-day Relative Strength Index has dropped to around 17.7–18, a level that typically reflects heavy selling exhaustion.

Historically, readings this low have often preceded short-term relief rallies.

However, other technical indicators present a more cautious picture.

Bitcoin is currently trading below all major exponential moving averages, including the 10-day, 20-day, 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day EMAs. This alignment signals a strong bearish trend across multiple timeframes.

Bitcoin price chart

Looking at the short-term Bitcoin price projections, the immediate support zone sits near $62,964, while a broader structural floor is located around the $60,000 region, which also aligns with long-term trend indicators.

A breakdown below $62,964 would increase the likelihood of a move toward lower liquidity zones near $60,000 and potentially $55,000.

On the upside, Bitcoin would need to close above $69,124 to shift short-term momentum. If that level is reclaimed, the next resistance zone is positioned near $71,589, which would signal early signs of structural recovery.

But until then, the trend remains heavily influenced by downside momentum rather than reversal signals.

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